Michigan judge throws kids in jail because they won’t eat lunch with their dad
A Michigan judge ordered three children – ages 15, 10 and 9 – into detention and compared the oldest boy to Charles Manson after they refused to attend a court-ordered lunch with their father.
Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni and Omer Tsimhoni recently went through a contentious divorce, and the family appeared in court June 24 for a hearing on supervised parenting time, reported WJBK-TV.
According to court documents, Judge Lisa Gorcyca was upset because the children refused to spend time with their father, and she threatened to send them to juvenile detention if they did not join their father for lunch.
The Bloomfield Hills children refused, claiming their father had hit their mother, and the judge found them in contempt of court, reported the Daily Tribune.
“You’re very defiant, you have no manners,” Gorcyca said to the eldest boy. “There is no reason why you do not have a relationship with your father. Your father has never been charged with anything. Your father’s never been convicted of anything. Your father doesn’t have a personal protection order against him. Your father is well-liked and loved by the community, his co-workers, his family (and) his colleagues. You, young man, have got it wrong. I think your father is a great man who has gone through hoops for you to have a relationship with you.”
The judge praised the teen’s mother for encouraging the children to have a relationship with their father, but then she compared the boy to a notorious death cult leader.
“You need to do a research program on Charlie Manson and the cult that he has,” Gorcyca said. “You have bought yourself living in Children’s Village, going to the bathroom in public, and maybe summer school.”
The judge forbid the boy’s mother or any other relatives to visit the boy, who has a review hearing scheduled for Sept. 8, and she did not allow the mother to say goodbye to her son.
“One day you are going to realize what’s going on in this case and you’re going to apologize to your dad,” Gorcyca said. “Dad, if you ever think that he has changed and he’s no longer like Charlie Manson’s cult, then you let us know and we can (review the case).”
The 10-year-old boy apologized during his hearing later the same day, but the 9-year-old girl did not audibly say she was sorry before the judge.
“I know you’re kind of religious,” Gorcyca said to the girl. “God gave you a brain. He expects you to use it. You are not your big, defiant brother who’s living in jail. Do you want to live in jail?”
Still, both the younger boy and girl refused to eat with their father in the courthouse cafeteria.
“Let’s see, you’re going to be a teenager,” Gorcyca told the girl. “You want to have your birthdays in Children’s Village? Do you like going to the bathroom in front of people? Is your bed soft and comfortable at home? I’ll tell you this, if you two don’t have a nice lunch with your dad and make this up to your dad, you’re going to come back here (after lunch) and I’m going to have the deputies take you to Children’s Village.”
The judge ordered the children, who she said had been brainwashed, to undergo psychiatric evaluations while in detention.
The mother’s attorney withdrew from the case five days later, citing $16,220 in unpaid fees, and another attorney filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus on Tsimhoni’s behalf and asked for another hearing before the judge on July 15.
The motion asks the judge to lift the contempt ruling or show why “they are being deprived of their liberty.”
Watch this video report posted online by WJBK-TV:
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