Judge orders kids to juvenile center for refusing to see dad

They say you can indict a ham sandwich, but one judge put three kids behind bars for refusing to eat lunch.

Judge Gorcyca responded: “Your father is well-liked and loved by the community, his coworkers, his family, his colleagues”.

Judge Lisa Gorcyca of Michigan’s Oakland County Family Court recently ordered three children under 15 years of age into juvenile detention for the summer after they refused to have lunch with their father.

The mother Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni and father Omer Tsimhoni have been involved in an intense divorce battle over the past six years, MyFoxDetroit.com reported.

The children were removed from Maya Tsimhoni’s custody following the hearing.

Judge Gorcyca admonished the 15-year-old, calling him “defiant” and “contemptuous”, stating that he defied a direct court order by not talking to his father.

The children’s father is a traffic safety researcher and GM engineer who works frequently at a lab in Israel, while their mother is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Michigan.

She went on to tell the youngest sibling – a 9-year-old girl – that “God gave you a brain. You are brainwashed. This is not normal behavior”.

The oldest boy told the judge during the hearing that he apologized for “whatever I did to you”. Tsimhoni’s son, at one point, tried to explain to the judge why they don’t want to see their dad, saying, “Because he is violent and I saw him hit my mom”.

A member of Gorcyca’s office said the judge was unable to comment on pending cases and directed the Guardian to review court records for the case.

Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni’s attorney Lisa Stern wouldn’t comment due to the sensitive nature of the case.

The family was in court for a hearing on supervised visitation. “He is a loving, caring father who desires a healthy relationship with his children”, the statement reads.

“Mr. Tsimhoni desires a resolution to the current circumstances that would allow his children to live in a healthy home and not the (juvenile detention center)”, Middleditch said.

The mother is also not allowed to see her children at the detention center, according to a court transcript. “And one day you are going to realize what’s going on in this case and you’re going to apologize to your dad”. “You won’t be in the same cell”. “It was because of your dad I didn’t do it”.

An emergency hearing concerning the children’s near future has been set for July 15. They have been in the detention center for over two weeks. “He expects you to use it”, said the judge. One child, a 15-year-old boy, told Gorcyca, “I didn’t do anything wrong….”

According to the judge’s order, the children’s mother can’t visit her children while they’re in custody, the children are to undergo psychiatric therapy at Children’s Village and they are to be kept separated so much as possible.