Judge Lisa Gorcyca claims a media frenzy broke the story ‘without getting all the facts straight’ and insists her decision was in the children’s best interests

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A Michigan judge on Friday reversed her decision to send three siblings to a juvenile detention facility for not talking to their father – and instead ordered they attend a local summer camp.

During a hearing Friday, Lisa Gorcyca, a circuit court judge in Oakland County, claimed a media frenzy commenced after a local TV news outlet broke the story of the kids’ detention sentence “without getting all the facts straight”. The hearing Friday was called to determine the “best course of action for these children”, said Gorcyca.

The judge found them in contempt of court last month after they refused to have lunch with their father, Omer Tsimhoni. The ruling came amid a protracted and contentious divorce proceeding between Omer and his wife, Maya, which dates back to 2009.

Kids sent to juvenile detention over cold shoulder to father a 'disturbing' ruling, experts say Read more

Gorcyca sent the siblings – ages nine, 10 and 15 – to a local juvenile facility until “you graduate from high school”, unless the father reported they were prepared to have a “healthy relationship” with him. (Although the eldest son said in court he was 15, some court documents indicate he is 14.)

The children’s detention sparked a fierce backlash both locally and on social media, and legal experts were taken aback by the judge’s initial decision. Dozens of supporters convened outside the Oakland County courthouse Wednesday to demand the children’s release.

On Friday, Gorcyca insisted her decision was issued in the children’s best interest.

“There are eight files,” Gorcyca said from prepared remarks, while turning toward the voluminous record of documents at her lectern. “No one has reviewed those files and, as of right now, no one has requested to watch any video. As a result, we have a frenzied, and misinformed, misguided public.”

She nonetheless dismissed the contempt ruling after a brief recess and ordered the Tsimhoni children to be transported to a local summer camp, where their parents can visit pursuant to camp policy – with a parenting time supervisor.

“Can you abide by that?” Gorcyca asked.

“Yes, I can, and I will,” said Omer Tsimhoni, who participated in the hearing by phone from Israel, where he spends the majority of his time for work as an engineer for General Motors.

Following the hearing, an emotional Maya Tsimhoni told reporters: “I”m very pleased the kids are out.

“I never did any of the things [Gorcyca is] saying about me,” she said, fighting off tears.

The judge’s ruling also prohibited media from publishing images of the children and required parental alienation counseling.

Attorneys representing the parents and the children jostled over the 90-minute hearing on whether Gorcyca had the jurisdiction to order the children into a juvenile facility in the first place.

At a 24 June hearing on supervised parenting time, Gorcyca said the children had been “brainwashed” by their mother before she ordered they be sent to the Children’s Village detention facility. The children were removed from Maya Tsimhoni’s custody following the hearing, and Gorcyca said neither the mother, nor any of her relatives, could visit the children, although their father could.

Legal experts called Gorcyca’s decision to send the kids to juvenile detention “unprecedented” and “disturbing” in interviews with the Guardian.

“The initial threat of sending them to detention even for a weekend is disturbing enough,” said Catherine Ross, a law professor at George Washington University who specializes in family law.

Lawrence Durbin, a law professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy, said: “The judge’s actions seems to run counter to the important mandate of family court jurisprudence, which is to do what’s in the children’s best interest. Whatever problems were created that caused this couple to divorce, the children should not in any way be held responsible.”

A 25-page report filed last year by a court appointed adviser, William Lansat, spelled out the parents’ litigious past and highlights allegations levied over the years by their children.

In August 2010, for example, a police report was filed after Omer Tsimhoni spent a day with his children unsupervised. But the meeting apparently soured shortly after, and the children called 911, alleging their father “threatened to kill them while at the park”, according to Lansat’s report.

When Maya Tsimhoni arrived, she alleged the father began “pushing her around”, the report says. No probable cause was found to arrest Omer Tsimhoni, who “has always denied making the threat”, according to the report. Maya Tsimhoni sought a personal protection order against her husband, but the request was denied by Gorcyca. Omer Tsimhoni has not been charged with a crime.

Lansat said the experience years ago doesn’t excuse the children’s behavior toward their father, a point he reiterated at the hearing Friday.

“The behaviors were frightening,” he said of a court-ordered parenting session last August with the kids. “It doesn’t take a PhD to figure out there’s something wrong with the children as it relates to their father.”

Lisa Stern, attorney for Maya Tsimhoni, declined to comment after the hearing when asked what she anticipates will happen when the summer camp term ends – saying it’s a decision left for the court.

Maya Tsimhoni said she’s always intended for the children to have a sound relationship with their father.

“Absolutely,” she said. “I always did.”