About a year ago, many will remember that we featured a story about a Texas Judge.

This judge was caught on tape (included at the end), beating his then-16yo Cerebral Palsy suffering daughter back in 2004. The reason for the beating? She used Kazaa to obtain some music.

Now, after a year of investigation, (all while he has been paid $146,000/year) Judge-at-Large William Adams, of Aransas County, Texas is back on the bench and issuing judgements.

In its November 6 order, the Texas Supreme Court agreed with a deal between Adams and the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct.

As part of that deal, a public warning was issued to Adams on September 5 2012, but no further punishments were levied aside from a minor pay cut to $144,000/year (€113,000)

Part of the difficulty was that since the beating happened in 2004, meaning that the statute of limitations for Criminal Child Abuse had expired when the video was published by Adams’ daughter in November 2011. The Texas Supreme Court did express reservations about his suitability for the bench, but did not feel strongly enough to remove him.

Adams is free to sit in judgement of others in his Rockport, Texas courtroom until 2014, when he is up for re-election to the post. However, physical domestic abuse cases, which comprised much of his docket a year ago, will no longer grace his court.

Let’s hope Copyright Trolls are also barred from there as well.

Warning: Some will find the video extremely upsetting.

Mirror here (Liveleak)