ICYMI: Children's Mother Persists in Fight to Remove Judge

Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni is continuing her fight to have a judge who sent her children to juvenile detention and later to summer camp removed from the case as she fights for sole custody in the acrimonious legal battle.

Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca on Monday refused to recuse herself from the case after Eibschitz-Tsimhoni’s lawyers argued she had shown bias toward the children’s father, Omer Tsimhoni, of West Bloomfield, who is also seeking full custody.

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The children’s parents divorced in August 2011, and Eibschitz-Tsimhoni has had full custody of the their sons, ages 14 and 11, and daughter 9. They have recently been living with him under a court order and participating in parental alienation sessions.

The court hearing continued Tuesday, but was delayed when Eibschitz-Tsimhoni, of Bloomfield Hills, appealed to Oakland County Chief Judge Nanci Grant to intercede and remove Gorcyca, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Gorcyca, who has been the judge on the case for five years, agreed to the delay, and Grant is expected to hear the motion next week.

In a written ruling explaining her decision to stay on the case, Gorcyca said the arguments raised by the children’s mother were “disingenuous and disorganized at best.”

In the meantime, the three children will continue to live with their father, where they have been since August. Gorcyca sent them to Oakland County Children’s Village, the county’s juvenile detention facility, after they refused to have lunch with their estranged father and begin to re-establish a relationship. The decision drew international attention.

Attorney William Lansat, guardian ad litem for the children, has said in written court filings that Eibschitz-Tsimhoni had worked to destroy the relationship with their father, but since beginning intense parental alienation therapy and living with him, the relationship is healing.

“During the initial 5-day period, the kids began to talk with their father, make eye contact, speak their father’s other son and Father’s wife, eat with their father, visit his home to pick out beds — in short, amazing,” Lansat wrote in one court filing that supported Gorcyca’s order.

Catch Up

• Judge Sends Kids to Detention for Refusing Lunch with Dad
• New Twist in Case of Kids Sent to Juvie for Refusing Lunch with Dad
• Dad Seeks Custody of Kids Sent to Detention for Refusing Lunch with Him
• New Attorneys Defend Mom Whose Kids Refused Lunch with Dad
• Kids Who Refused Lunch with Dad Now Living With Him
• Judge in Bitter Custody Dispute Could Recuse Herself
• Judge Won’t Recuse Herself in Contentious Child Custody Case