Police say a Texas judge who was secretly videotaped beating his teenage daughter seven years ago won't face charges because the statutes of limitations have passed.

Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe said Thursday that Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams likely would have been charged with causing injury to a child and other assault offenses if the five-year statutes of limitations hadn't expired.

"We believe that there was a criminal offence involved and that there was substantial evidence to indicate that and under normal circumstances ... a charge could have been made," Jayroe said. He said the district attorney determined he couldn't bring charges, and that police would discuss the case with federal prosecutors even though he doesn't believe federal charges would apply.

Texas judge William Adams' 23-year-old daughter, Hillary, posted an eight-minute clip of the 2004 beating on YouTube last week that shows her father savagely lash her 17 times with a belt. YouTube

Adams is still being investigated by the state Department of Family and Protective Services, which has requested he not preside over any of its cases.

Adams' 23-year-old daughter, Hillary, posted the eight-minute clip of the 2004 beating on YouTube last week that shows her father savagely lash her 17 times with a belt.

On Thursday, Adams said that his daughter posted the video because he told her he was reducing her financial support and taking away her Mercedes.

Adams, 51, issued a statement through his lawyer in which he questioned his daughter's motives for posting the secretly made video online last week. The three-page statement did not include an apology for the beating.

Adams, Aransas County's top judge, was elected in 2001 and has dealt with at least 349 family law cases in the past year alone, nearly 50 of which involved state caseworkers seeking determine whether parents were fit to raise their children.

In the video, which has been viewed on YouTube more than 2.4 million times, the judge lashes his then 16-year-old daughter with a belt while she wailed and pleaded with him to stop. At the beginning of the video he tells his wife to get his younger daughter out of the room. He told a TV station Wednesday that the video "looks worse than it is" and that he was just disciplining his child.

Adams said in his statement Thursday that he will "respond" to any investigations.

Hillary Adams says the outpouring of support and encouragement she's received since posting the clip last week is tempered by the sadness that it's her father repeatedly lashing her with a belt and threatening to beat her "into submission."

"I'm experiencing some regret because I just pulled the covers off my own father's misbehaviour after so many people thought he was such a good person. ... But so many people are also telling me I did the right thing," she told The Associated Press outside her mother's home in the Gulf Coast town of Portland on Wednesday.

She said the attack was not the only one. "It did happen regularly for a period of time," she told NBC's "Today" show on Thursday during an appearance with her mother.

In that interview, Hallie Adams blamed her ex-husband's bouts of violence on his "addiction," calling it a "family secret." She did not elaborate. Their 22-year marriage ended in 2007. She also said William Adams had threatened to have their custody agreement modified to take their younger daughter away.

William Adams painted a different picture.

"Just prior to the YouTube upload, a concerned father shared with his 23-year-old daughter that he was unwilling to continue to work hard and be her primary source of financial support, if she was going to simply 'drop out,' and strive to achieve no more in life than to work part time at a video game store," Adams' statement said. "Hillary warned her father if he reduced her financial support, and took away her Mercedes automobile, which her father had provided, he would live to regret it."

Hillary Adams did not immediately respond to email requests Thursday seeking a response. She said Wednesday that she turned on the video camera in 2004 because her parents were angry that she had downloaded pirated content online and she sensed something was going to happen.

Corpus Christi television station KZTV caught up with the judge Wednesday and he said, "In my mind, I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing," Adams said. "And I did lose my temper, but I've since apologized."