The State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a public warning to Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams on Sept. 6, concluding that a 2004 videotape depicting Adams striking his daughter “forcefully at least seventeen times with a belt . . . cast reasonable doubt on his capacity to act impartially as a judge.”
On Sept. 5, the commission released a public reprimand to Justice James “Jim” Patrick Sharp Jr. of Houston’s 1st Court of Appeals, concluding that he “lent the prestige of his judicial office to advance the private interests of his friend and her daughter” by trying to “intimidate” Brazoria County employees into releasing the 15-year-old from juvenile custody.
