With regard to the intellectual exercise of “does this count as child abuse under Texas case law?”, what would be occurring in this video if this was an adult male beating an unrelated teenage girl with a belt? Would THAT count as a crime? And if so, why does it not count as a crime because they are related?
I’m going to repeat myself, even thought it’s pointless.
**If you have never been abused, you simply don’t know what you’re talking about. **
It is easy to play “Internet Tough Guy” and talk about the people you would murder, etc. But, you’ve never been abused. You have no idea what it’s like. Be glad of it, shut your mouth, and move on.
So this guy is trying to get custody of his younger daughter - the one who was watching him scream at, threaten, and beat the crap out of her big sister?
Good on her for posting it. She couldn’t help herself, but maybe she can help her little sister.
This is my biggest frustration in conversations about abuse.
Bricker, you’re like my uncle, the doctor, who at a wedding reception, greeted someone he hadn’t seen in years and without preamble, said “You better get that [mole] removed; it’s cancerous.” He was correct: it was cancerous. And it was fortunate that this person found out when they did. But it was still a cock way to tell them.
ETA: Dogzilla Or, more likely, awarding custody to parents who shouldn’t have it.
There’s an ton of stuff that you can’t do to strangers that society acknowledges you can do to your child.
For example, insisting that they either eat their goddamn veggies or they can starve and see if I care. Also 9PM curfew, no playing GTA until you’re old enough and so forth. And as **Bricker **notes, f I confine a stranger to my bedroom, it’s kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. If I do it to my theoretical child, it’s grounding.
So that’s the answer to your last question. If it doesn’t count as a crime, it’s because the law doesn’t consider children the way it does strangers.
But note that this goes both ways: I would expect the law comes down harsher on those who abuse relatives they’re meant to care for and are given more leeway *because *they are meant to care for them than on those who abuse strangers in the same fashion.
Or maybe I choose to believe this, because the alternative would be too fucked up to contemplate.
Those are all excellent points. However, there are laws that exist that do not allow you to physical abuse your own children. In this particular case, earlier links and discussion state that this does not legally “count” as child abuse because the child is over 14. So, under Texas law, people between the ages of 14 and 18 are not protected from physical abuse by their parents unless said abuse would fall under a first-degree felony for an unrelated person. (If my memory serves me correctly of the legal derailment).
edited to add: upon further review, I’m not sure. Given that the laws seem to focus on the age of 14 years, there seems to be a gap of protection between 14 and 18 years of age, and that just can’t be correct.
So, if these two were not related, would this fall under a first-degree felony assault?
I’m so glad that this discussion has moved from “Is the behavior in this video morally wrong and condemnable?” to legal nitpicking about what does and does not constitute reprehensible behavior :rolleyes:
(that’s not aimed at you, Kobal2, it’s just the inevitable result of Bricker’s pedantic legal sidetracking).
Actually, the rule in question was one of the statute of limitations, and whether it applied to this behavior. The statute is longer for cases of child abuse - perhaps long enough to have not expired yet. If it were simple assault, then it is three years, no weird exceptions.
Would you rather we tirelessly (albeit tiresomely) gauge with scientific accuracy just how much of a cunt the judge is, whether he breaks the “goddamn fucking cunt” threshold or if a simple “fucking cunt” would suffice, if the Japanese model of cuntdom assessment would be more accurate in this particular case etc… ? 
This is the Dope. No nit will go unpicked, by law.
According to the mother in an interviewgiven today, it wasn’t an isolated incident and was a regular part of life over a period of years. She said the beatings happened as a result of her husbands ‘addiction’ but didn’t specify what that addiction was. She admits her role in the situation with regret, but says she was controlled and manipulated by him - even coached on specifically what she had to say to the kids in agreement with him. I’m sure if she refused his wrath would be even worse and the girls would still suffer just the same or more.
He isn’t up for re-election for another 3 years. The timing of the release has no significance according to the daughter. It was just a result of him continuing to try to control her even as an adult while living outside of the home (there was mention of a car he took back and that he has cancelled her telephone service so apparently he continued to provide some financial support and used it to retain some control over her). She told him she was going to release the video and he shrugged it off and said go ahead, so she did.
In some cases when an adult has come forward with accusations of abuse by a parent years later it was to protect a younger sibling who might wind up in their custody. It wouldn’t be at all surprising or inappropriate if the custody battle over her 11 year old sister really was her motive. But she says the only reason she didn’t release it earlier is that as long as she was a minor and her mother remained married to him she would have no control over what happened to her or her mother. She has only been over 18 for a couple of years, and their divorce has only been final for a few years. Her timing, and motive if she has any, don’t seem at all suspect. Either she is trying to protect her little sister, or she is trying to prevent him from being a judge to protect other families, or she is just trying to expose, embarrass and make him accountable for what he has done because now she is an adult, out of his control, and able to do so for the first time.
As far as all the legal wrangling going on in here, like it or not in most states it is perfectly legal to hit your kids and there are rarely stipulations about where, and with what, and for what reasons. In Texas proving physical abuse requires physical injury or likely physical injury from the punishment administered by the parent or from neglect, abandonment, etc. Depending on the details and to some extent the whim of CPS and family judges like this fellow, that could mean that walloping a kid across the face with a belt is fine in one case, while bruising a kids arm with a slightly rough grab could be called abuse in another.
Emotional abuse is even less cut and dried but also in general requires some evidence of actual emotional injury or a reasonable probability of causing emotional injury based on actions or inaction of the parents. The investigators in this case obviously believe the video could depict a crime or they wouldn’t be conducting an investigation. Even under media and public pressure and outrage if it were cut and dried - “there is no chance this is abuse under Texas law” then they wouldn’t investigate it. At the same time the judge obviously believes he is on solid legal ground as he has chosen to publicly state that it was him and he has no regrets.
Oh this should end well…
You know, this has been an eye opening thread for me. I read the comments first before watching the video to see where exactly I fell in the “was it abuse or not” camp.
And I was surprised with myself.
Upon viewing, my initial thought was that it wasn’t any big deal. I’ve been “spanked” as badly as that (although admittedly without all the profanity) and never considered it to be child abuse. But upon reflection, and considering how I’d feel if this was done to an unrelated minor, I think my entire belief system regarding this needs to be questioned.
Now, I am born and bred Texan and my mother definitely had a “spare the rod, spoil the child” über approach. So I guess I should’ve figured all this out before 43. But I’m shocked that it never crossed my mind that it meant my mother was out of control pertaining to this or didn’t have an adult response to situations that would require discipline other than beating me with a belt repeatedly.
I mean, I too wondered what else that girl had done in the past to “make” him go over the edge. What all had been tried, but had failed due to her willfulness. Why she wouldn’t comply to instructions to insure any easier time for herself. 
Then thinking about that further, I was appalled by my lack of insight into my own upbringing that prevented me from seeing the truth here.
Was I so wedded to believing this wasn’t abuse so I didn’t have to admit to my own? I don’t know. But I do know that I’m embarrassed and ashamed of my ideology at the conclusion of that tape.
How could I have blamed the victim and excused her attacker? How could I have thought there was any mitigating circumstances that excused his behavior? How could I not see this for what it (and by extension, mine) was? Clearly abuse.
In closing, I agree that I hope that man never sees custody of his other daughter again or the inside of another court room as a judge. I also wish lots of healing on the young woman and some enlightenment on the masses who still view this as acceptable. Also, may the mother get all the help she so richly needs.
Just sad, all the way around over nothing but a controlling, immature monster. May he someday understand the severe damage he’s done.
I don’t know why, but that last detail just cracks me right up.
There’s something so very about that report, be it from neighbours being able to ID gun cases from across the street, or actually counting them, or the reporter mentioning them so very casually and matter-of-factly like they’re just, you know, what you take with you when you go on a trip. Underwear, toothbrush, half a dozen weapons, a magazine for the flight and an inflatable sheep, why not ?
ETA: that was re:Crazyhorse’s post
I found thisinteresting, and an indication that the daughter in the video is capable of far greater restraint than I could be.
Of course, she’s had several years’ distance between the event and now.
I still can’t get past this clown being a family court judge.
How can I possibly answer that question without legal analysis?
Brief and informal poll: does anyone else have any interest in the answer to that question, even if it - gasp - involves discussion of the law?
Or should we stick to the highly controversial main point:
Judge Adams: dick, really a dick, or absolutely no foolin’ a super dickus maximus?
faithfool, that was a stunning post.
I for one find dry, legalistic pontification to be absolutely relevant when it comes to discussing the morality of an action.
Wait, did I say “pontification”? I meant masturbation.
+1. Like. This. QFT. and all the other shit nobody likes. (even though I got drawn into it anyway).
Good on you, faithfool – better late than never. As someone who grew-up with an unstable dictator for a Father, I can assure you that video brought back sunken memories I’d hoped were dead and gone many decades ago. I promised myself loooong ago I’d never put my own kid through any of that when my turn came – and I didn’t. Proud to say I have a gifted 21 y.o. son, whose list of accomplishments are already too long to list here.
Shame on those of you that are attempting to justify this for anything other than what it is: a knuckle-dragging, out-of-control, power-tripping asshole, savagely stomping a defenseless 14/15 year old girl.
Fuck him! And 'Mom" doesn’t get much sympathy from me either…
This. This is what I was trying to say. It’s not okay what he did and I don’t condone it, but all across America, this is within ‘parent’s rights’. Or perceived rights. We have no idea if he did this several times or three or once or what. All we know is that she made a tape seven years ago, he and his wife divorced, he’s up for re-election and she posts it on the internet. We have no idea what their relationship was like the last seven years. And what he did was (sadly) considered ‘within the norm’ for most households. (Every day is one, thing, but a couple of good whuppin’s a year is another.)
How did I say she was a criminal or that he wasn’t at fault? He was at fault. I just questioned that she grew up her entire life being abused under a belt. We don’t know that.
Who is defending? Cite or it’s not true.
People who seem otherwise normal and upperclass and generous and lovely can and do wail on their children. And some of us who have been abused still love our abusers (often parents) because that’s what kids do.
There is zero justification for his actions. But I’m surprised (really sincerely surprised, figuring Dopers would be more read up on this) that people think you must be a drunken/sadistic/evil/psycho/horrible/etc person to do this to your child. One mistake a bad person does not make. Parents don’t always know they’re making mistakes.
Hell, you can be a bad parent and be a good person in every other regard. People have different sides to them. This kind of stuff probably happens once in most families. Are Dopers really that sheltered? If you read the articles, the people interviewed about this were shocked because they all liked the judge. He must have some redeeming qualities.