Judge Who Detained Kids for Missing Lunch with Dad Faces Hearing

OAKLAND COUNTY, MI — Oakland County Judge Lisa Gorcyca, who has faced a firestorm of criticism over her handling of an acrimonious child custody dispute involving three Bloomfield Hills children, was expected to go before a panel of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission Monday.

The panel is charged with deciding whether to accept a misconduct ruling against Gorcyca that said she “failed to establish, maintain, enforce, and personally observe high standards of conduct to that the integrity and independence of the judiciary may be preserved.”

The ruling by Wayne County Circuit Judge Daniel Ryan, a special master appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court to rule on the complaints filed with the Judicial Tenure Commission, also said Gorcyca failed to accept “personal responsibility for her own behavior” during the more than five-year dispute over the three minor children of Omer Tsimhoni and Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni.

Among the decisions that came under question was one in 2015 to send the three children to to juvenile detention for refusing to have lunch with their estranged father and ordering them led from the courtroom in handcuffs.

The children spent two weeks at Oakland County Children’s Village before Gorcyca changed her order and sent them to a summer camp instead.

Gorcyca recused herself from the case after the charges were filed with the Judicial Tenure Commission.
It was unclear if the panel of the Judicial Tenure Commission would rule after the hearing, or take the matter under advisement. Among the options are available are rejection or modification of the findings, or referring the matter to the Michigan Supreme Court to decide punishment. The latter option would give Gorcyca the chance to defend herself.

Parenting groups have fallen on both sides of the case, the Detroit Free Press reported. Fathers’ groups have said Tsimhoni’s struggle to maintain a relationship with his children is a classic case of parental alienation, and Eibschitz-Tsimhoni has the support of groups that maintain children can’t be ordered by a court to love someone for whom they have no feelings.

Attorneys throughout Oakland County have stood behind Gorcyca, including a defiant protest in July by about 130 lawyers who attended a routine hearing in Gorcyca’s courtroom after Ryan's ruling.

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