Judge Who Locked Up Kids for Missing Lunch with Dad Faces Suspension, Fine

OAKLAND COUNTY, MI — Judge Lisa Gorcyca, the Oakland County family court judge who famously sent three Bloomfield Hills children to juvenile detention for refusing to have lunch with their estranged father , should be given a 30-day unpaid suspension and fined more than $12,550, the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission recommended Monday.

The Michigan Supreme Court will make the final decision on Gorcyca’s punishment.

Gorcyca, who made national headlines for her handling of the acrimonious case, has said the contempt of court order that she sent the children of well-to-do parents — Omer Tsimhoni, of West Bloomfield, and Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni, of Bloomfield Hills — to a facility normally reserved for children who are abused or in the juvenile justice system was a “display of frustration” over the long-running case.

The parents have been fighting over visitation and custody since their divorce in 2011, and more than 100 motions and other documents, several of them alleging parental alienation, have been filed.

The children remained in juvenile detention for about two weeks before Gorcyca amended her order and sent the children to a summer camp instead. They were 14, 11 and 9 at the time.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Daniel Ryan, a special master appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court to rule on the complaints against Gorcyca filed with the Judicial Tenure Commission, found her guilty of misconduct and acting inappropriately in her handling of the case.

Gorcyca has apologized for remarks she made during the proceedings, including the allegations that she “laughed at the children and was sarcastic,” said they’d been brainwashed by the mother and referenced notorious killer Charles Manson when she described the children as engaging in cult-like behavior.

In his ruling, Ryan said 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.”

Gorcyca’s attorney, Thomas Crammer, has maintained Gorcyca acted appropriately and did not abuse her discretion in her handling of the case, The Detroit News reported. Crammer did not immediately respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.

In its recommendation for disciplinary action the Tenure Commission said Gorcyca was hasty in her finding of contempt of court, usually a last resort.

“Her misconduct was using the awesome judicial power of contempt to vent her frustration on three children because she wanted them to have a better relationship with their father,” according to the order “Her ... language was not only counterproductive in accomplishing what she wanted; it may well have been misconduct against the adults.”

Also according to the ruling, Goryca targeted children who had found themselves in a court battle that was not of their own making. Her conduct “strikes at the heart of the proper role of a judge when dealing with children: to be a safe haven and refuge rather than a bully,” the tenure commission said.

Gorcyca may appeal directly to the Michigan Supreme Court.

She recused herself from the case late last year after a two-count complaint against her was filed by the Judicial Tenure Commission on Jan. 14

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