(Newswire.net — July 11, 2015) — Oakland County Family Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca sentenced three children, ages 9, 12 and 14, two weeks in juvenile jail because they disobeyed a direct ruling, refusing to have lunch with their father.
After releasing them from jail, the children were sent to a summer camp, by a court ruling according to the Detroit Free Press.
“The court finds that it is in the children’s best interests to grant the father’s and the guardian ad litem’s motion to allow the children to attend summer camp. Children’s Village is to facilitate the transportation,” judge Gorcyca said.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” 14-year-old Liam Tsimhoni said after Gorcyca moved for a contempt of court sentence.
“I do apologize if I didn’t understand the rules,” the boy said at the hearing, “but I do not apologize for not talking to (the father) because I have a reason for that, and that’s because he’s violent and I saw him hit my mom, and I’m not going to talk to him.”
The situation made national headlines after judge Gorcyca accused the mother Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni for “brainwashing” her children. According to the court transcription, the judge compared the mother’s behavior to a Charlie Manson’s cult.
“Your behavior in the hall with me months ago, your behavior in this courtroom … is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in 46,000 cases,” said Gorcyca.
“No adult in this courtroom, except one, thinks this is normal,” judge Gorcyca told 14-years-old Liam after he refused to speak with his father, because he witnessed his father beat his mother.
“I ordered you to talk to your father. You chose not to talk to your father. You defied a direct court order. It’s direct contempt so I’m finding you guilty of civil contempt,” Judge Gorcyca said before she ordered him to be locked up at the Children’s Village, a juvenile detention center in Michigan’s Waterford Township.
His younger siblings, 10-year-old Roee, and 9-year-old Natalie were also locked up and forbidden contact with their brother, mother, or anyone from her side of the family, according to Detroit Free Press.
“She ordered them to have feelings,” Jennifer Hoult, the New York lawyer who is handling legal action on behalf of the children, told the New York Observer, adding that the order directly violates children basic constitutional rights.
While Detroit Free Press describes judge Gorcyca as normal, pleasant in court, Washington Post blogger Radley Balko said she is “unfit to be a judge.”