After being flooded with calls, faxes and emails calling for action, a Texas judicial panel is investigating an internet video that shows a judge beating his teenage daughter with a belt.
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct says in a statement released Thursday that it has "commenced an investigation into the incident."
The statement does not name Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams, but it does reference "a YouTube video purporting to depict a Texas judge engaging in the act of striking his teenage daughter with a belt."
The 13-member panel comprises judges, lawyers and regular citizens. After a formal proceeding and hearing, it has the authority to censure a judge or recommend to the Texas Supreme Court that the judge be suspended or removed.
In an interview with the Today show on NBC, Hillary Adams, the girl beaten in the video, says her father needs help and isn't fit to be a judge.
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