Three children aged 9, 10, and 15 are locked up in Michigan juvenile detention centers because they refused to talk to their father after being ordered to do so by Judge Lisa Gorcyca.
The children are the pawns in the contentious divorce of their parents, Dr. Maya Tsimhoni and Omer Tsimhoni. Judge Gorcyca, believing that the children, Liam, Roee and Natalie were brainwashed by their mother against their father, apparently tried to force a reconciliation that went very wrong.
When the children refused to go to lunch with their father in an effort to open up communication between them, Judge Gorcyca cited them for contempt of court.
In a transcript of the court proceedings provided by Fox TV Media, the Judge, in an effort to coerce the children into speaking with their father, states that the children can be held until they are 18, and asks the young girl if she’d like to have her birthdays in Children’s Village and if she’d like to go to the bathroom in front of people. All three children refused to obey the judge’s mandate and were led away without being able to say goodbye to their parents. The children were separated from each other and not allowed contact between themselves or with either of their parents.
As reported in the Daily Tribune article below,Judge Gorcyca told one of the children“You are so mentally messed up right now and it’s not because of your father.” The irony of her statement is that the children will be most likely be even more "messed up" due to her actions in placing them in juvenile facilities for the “crime” of not talking to their father. Without taking sides in this parental dispute, surely a less harmful decision that is truly in the best interest of the children could have been made. Read more.
Amid a storm of national outrage, that included protests, an online petition to free the children and comments against the her from criminal justice professionals, the judge released them from the juvenile center and ordered them to summer camp instead.
Studies have shown that children locked up in juvenile facilities experience a wide range of physical and psychological effects that can have long range consequences. It is too soon to know if the Tsimhoni children will be negatively impacted by the judge’s stunning decision to treat them as hardened criminals, but the odds are that these kids will not come away unscathed.
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