There are some stories that you just can’t get out of your head. This is one of them. Here’s the brief synopsis:
Three Oakland County children who refused to go to lunch with their father, as part of a bitter divorce and custody battle between their parents, are spending their summer in the county’s juvenile detention center, according to court records.
“We’ll review it when school starts, and you may be going to school there,” Oakland County Family Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca told the children during a June 24 hearing, referring to the center in Waterford Township called Children’s Village, where authorities house as many as 200 juvenile offenders.
Gorcyca, who blamed their mother for poisoning the children’s attitude toward their father, ordered the children be sent to the center for defying her orders — while in court — that they go to lunch with their father.
The children — ranging in age from 9 to 15 — were deemed in contempt of court last month by Gorcyca for disobeying her orders to “have a healthy relationship with your father.”
First, how in the world do you order a person to have a “healthy relationship” with another person? And let’s say that the mother is the worst person in the world and did turn her children against their father… why the hell would you punish the children?
Is this even legal?
The most generous spin I can put on this is that the judge has mental problems – which still results in her being fired. Here are some choice quotes:
An Oakland County circuit judge who sent three children to a juvenile detention facility for refusing to speak to their father compared the kids to cult leader Charles Manson.
Oakland Circuit Judge Lisa Gorcyca declared the children of Maya Tsimhoni in contempt of court last month and ordered them held at Oakland County Children’s Village until they attempt to have a relationship with their father or they turn 18.
The three — ages 9, 10, and 15 — have been incarcerated for more than two weeks . . .
“I do apologize if I didn’t understand the rules,” said one boy, 15, “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 father has not been charged with a crime.
Gorcyca called the boy a “defiant, contemptuous young man” and asked him if there was anything he’d like to say about being sent to Children’s Village.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” the boy said.
“No, you did,” Gorcyca said.
“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.”
The boy responded: “But he was the one that (did) something wrong. I thought there (were) rules .. for not hitting someone.”
“You’re supposed to have a high IQ, which I’m doubting right now because of the way you act,” Gorcyca said.
“You’re very defiant. You have no manners … There is no reason why you do not have a relationship with your father . . .
Wow. Did she just call the boy stupid? And is her claim that the children are guilty of civil contempt even true? Let’s say the mother is a horrible person who brainwashed her children, how is that the children’s fault? Why punish them for the adult’s behavior?
It gets worse:
Tsimhoni’s two other children had a hearing later in the day, during which the 10-year-old boy did speak briefly to his father.
“Judge, I’m sorry for my behavior, and dad, I’m sorry for my behavior,” he said.
“Dad, the judge wanted me to talk to you so here is something about myself ? I enjoy soccer and I hope to be on the soccer team.”
A girl, 9, was asked if she would also like to apologize to her father, but she had no audible response.
“I know you’re kind of religious,” Gorcyca told the girl.
“God gave you a brain. He expects you to use it. You are not your big, defiant brother who’s living in jail. Do you want to live in jail?”
The girl said she would try to work with her father during visits, and Gorcyca told the children to go to lunch with their father.
“Let’s see, you’re going to be a teenager,” Gorcyca told the girl.
“You want to have your birthdays in Children’s Village? Do you like going to the bathroom in front of people? Is your bed soft and comfortable at home? I’ll tell you this, if you two don’t have a nice lunch with your dad and make this up to your dad, you’re going to come back here (after lunch) and I’m going to have the deputies take you to Children’s Village.”
The other brother and sister said they didn’t want to have lunch with their father, either, so Gorcyca sent them to juvenile detention, too. She then forbade the boy from contacting their brother while they’re there. She also ordered that they have minimal contact with one another. And they’ve apparently been there ever since.
WTactualF? Not only did this fruit-loop judge send them juvenile detention, but she isolated them from each other. I hope they have an excellent lawyer and sue, sue, sue!
I don’t want to get into which parent is telling the truth. It. Really. Doesn’t. Matter. If you think it does then you, like the parents, aren’t thinking about the children. Let’s just say neither of them is like the “real mother” in King Solomon‘s story. Both seem willing to cut the baby in half.
Meanwhile, there’s a batsh*t crazy judge in Michigan who needs to lose her job.