Chief Judge Steps Out of Contentious Child Custody Battle, Too

Oakland County Chief Judge Nanci Grant said in an order filed Thursday that she’s not going to kick her colleague, Circuit Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca, from the acrimonious custody case involving three Bloomfield Hills children.

Grant had been asked by attorneys for the children’s mother, Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni, to remove Gorcyca from the case after Gorcyca declined to recuse herself over allegations by Eibschitz-Tsimhoni that she had continually sided with the children’s father, Omer Tsimhoni, in the long-running dispute.

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In the order, Grant checked a box that read: “I believe, based on objective and reasonable perceptions, my continued assignment would create an appearance of impropriety.”

The case made national headlines last summer after Gorcyca ordered the children to detention at Oakland County Children’s Village after they refused a reconciliation lunch with their estranged father. Gorcyca said in court proceedings that children’s mother has brainwashed them against their father.

They recently have been living with their father under a court order and are participating in parental alienation sessions.

A gag order has been imposed preventing attorneys in the case from speaking to the media and others about it.