Police won’t charge Texas judge William Adams seen in YouTube video beating daughter (VIDEO)

Police said too much time had passed to press state charges against Texas judge William Adams, seen lashing his teenage daughter with a belt on a viral YouTube video.

(GlobalPost reports: YouTube video of judge beating disabled daughter goes viral, sparks inquiry (VIDEO)

Here's the shocking video, viewed more than 4 million times as of Friday evening, titled: Judge William Adams beats daughter for using the internet.

However, Federal prosecutors agreed Friday to look into a video the matter.

According to The Associated Press:

Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe said he discussed the 2004 video of Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams beating his then 16-year-old daughter with a prosecutor from the U.S. attorney's Corpus Christi office.

"There was nothing that we discussed briefly this morning that to him would indicate there could be any federal involvement, but that he had seen the video and they would look into it," Jayroe said.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct, meanwhile, said Thursday that it had "commenced an investigation" into the conduct of Judge Adams.

The release of the video by Hillary Adams —who covertly filmed the incident, supposed punishment for downloading material from the internet onto the family computer — has "launched a national conversation about discipline and spanking," USA today wrote.

Adams, who was then 16, now 23, told NBC's "Today" program Thursday that the beating was not a one-off and "did happen regularly for a period of time."

She told NBC that: "I'm experiencing some regret because I just pulled the covers off my own father's misbehavior after so many people thought he was such a good person…

"But so many people are also telling me I did the right thing. He's supposed to be a judge who exercises fit judgment."

Her father, meantime, has defended his behavior, saying that he had not "done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing," and that the video "looks worse than it is."

Reactions to press reports of the beating have ranged from widespread condemnation of the whippings as child abuse, to support of the judge's actions as parental discipline.