Judge Who Sent Kids to Detention for Missing Lunch with Dad Guilty

This story has been updated.

Bloomfield Hills, MI — The family court judge who made international headlines last year when she sent three kids to juvenile detention for refusing to have lunch with their estranged father has been found guilty of misconduct from the bench for by the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.

Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca “failed to establish, maintain, enforce, and personally observe high standards of conduct to that the integrity and independence of the judiciary may be preserved,” according to the ruling released Friday afternoon.

The ruling also said Gorcyca also failed to accept “personal responsibility for her own behavior” during the largely acrimonious dispute over the three minor children of Omer Tsimhoni and Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni.

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The ruling now goes to the Michigan Supreme Court, which may either accept them and decide what if any punishment should be imposed, or reject them.

Gorcyca earlier apologized for a “display of frustration,” admitting that she was at times “exasperated” by the case.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Wayne County Circuit Court Judge, the special master who was appointed to preside over the judicial trial, sternly admonished Gorcyca:

“Contrary to the chilling impact Judge Gorcyca contends this case will have on judges across the state, this is not a case that stands for the proposition that judges cannot employ stern language or make difficult decisions from the bench in contentious cases. It is a disciplinary action which stands for the singular proposition that if a judge is going to use the inherent power of contempt, the ultimate 'tool in the toolbox' after years of 'frustration,' the judge may wish to consult the owner’s manual to make sure that she or he is using the tool properly before employing one of the 34 penultimate tools of inherent judicial power, a contempt finding, to deprive any individual, or children in this case, of their liberty.”

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