Trouble for Judge Who Jailed Kids for Refusing to See Their Dad

A family court judge who sparked a swirl of national media outrage for ordering three siblings into juvenile detention after they refused to have lunch with their father has been slapped with an official complaint alleging her misconduct.

Oakland County, Mich., Circuit Judge Lisa Gorcyca, above, whose treatment of the three children in question — ages 9, 10, and 13 at the time of the June hearing from which the complaint arises — has prompted a Judicial Tenure Commission to file a 13-page report on Monday claiming that her behavior violated the state’s Judicial Code of Conduct.

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That behavior, according to the complaint (and, reportedly, to transcripts and a video recording of the hearing), included the judge’s comparing the children to cult followers of Charles Manson, inferring that they were crazy, insinuating that they could be forced to spend the rest of their childhood at a juvenile detention facility — “going to the bathroom in front of people” — and generally ridiculing and frightening them and failing “to act in a patient, dignified, and courteous manner.” It alleges that Gorcyca had the children handcuffed in court and that she laughed at them, even as the youngest cried with fear.

“When you are ready to have lunch with your dad, to have dinner with your dad, to be normal human beings, I will review this when your dad tells me you are ready,” the complaint quotes the judge as saying to the children in court. “Otherwise you are living in [the detention center] Children’s Village till you graduate from high school.”

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The report is just the latest chapter in a nasty six-year custody battle between Omer and Maya Tsimhoni — one that included Omer’s seeking full legal and physical custody of his children, as well as Gorcyca’s ordering the family into a controversial “reunification therapy,” prompted by Omer’s belief that Maya had created “parental alienation” by poisoning the children against him.

And by some media accounts, the new report is a damning one that may soon see Gorcyca forced out of her $140,000 a year job. “If you want to be Oakland County’s next family court judge, now would be an excellent time to make your aspirations known, because there’s about to be an opening,” writes Detroit Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson, who believes that unless the facts alleged in the report “prove utterly false, the Michigan Supreme Court will probably cut short Oakland County Circuit Judge Lisa Gorcyca’s seven-year career sometime early next year,” and that a “vacancy could occur even sooner if Gorcyca decides to resign.”

Still, though Dickerson writes that he “winced” when he read the transcripts of the hearing, which he witnessed, “a review of the 5 ½-year record of the underlying divorce and custody case led me to conclude that Gorcyca had merely suffered an unseemly meltdown in the course of a long, frustrating campaign to maintain the children’s emotional ties to both parents.”

Michigan attorney Henry Gornbein — who is one of at least 10 lawyers who has represented Maya Tsimhoni at some point during her bitter battle with her ex-husband, and who has worked with Gorcyca many times in his career — also believes that her behavior that day was an exception to the norm and that there has been a “rush to judgment” by the media.

“I happen to be a supporter of the judge,” he tells Yahoo Parenting. “I think she may have had a moment of frustration, as we all have, with a case that’s been in litigation since 2009 … She’s trying her best to undo a lot of damage that’s taken place over many years. We’re all human. But she’s an excellent judge, and she really cares about children.” And despite reports that the complaint against Gorcyca is moving quickly, Gornbein says, he believes it “has a long way to go” and that “a lot of things can still happen,” but that her removal is not a likely option.

“I honestly think she made a mistake,” he adds, “but I think it’s been blown out of proportion.”

Photo at top: Daniel Mears/Detroit News via AP, Pool

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