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The Israeli-American Tsimhoni children were released from a juvenile detention facility by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca in Michigan after she lifted her civil contempt order against them. The three brothers and sisters, Liam, 14, Rowie, 10, and Nathalie, 9, were held for 15 days simply because they refused to speak with their estranged father who is divorced from their mother.
Instead of a youth prison the three will be allowed to attend summer camp like normal kids do.
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Judge Gorcya felt that their refusal was a sin punishable by imprisonment, which shocked just about everyone who heard the story.
In court she told one of the kids, “You’re supposed to have a high IQ, which I’m doubting right now because of the way you act, you’re very defiant, you have no manners.” This was an odd thing for a judge to tell a child, to say the least.
The reversal came after an appeal from the children’s mother which was heard last Wednesday.
In her new decision, the judge stated, “The court agrees with the children’s guardian’s recommendation as to the best interests of the children. The court finds that is in the children’s best interests to grant the father’s and the guardian ad litem’s motion to allow the children to attend summer camp. Children’s Village is to facilitate the transportation.”
Brittany Kalso of Oakland County Children’s Village told the court that while in detention the Tsimhoni children had been doing well and were interacting well with the other child detainees.
The three will attend a two week Jewish camp. It is not clear yet what the judge will do once the camp session ends.
What is clear is that the jailing of the kids was excessive.
But the judge was unrepentant, even when reversing herself. In court she said, “While this court’s remedy in this particular situation may seem drastic and offensive, so too, is the notion that the only way to maintain a stable and loving connection with the mother is to vilify and reject the father.”
In her original ruling Judge Gorcya seemed to put the blame on the refusal of the three children to see their father on the mother, saying that it is not unusual for one parent to try to poison the children against the other parent during a bitter divorce.
But if she felt that way then why did Judge Gorcya not punish the mother instead of the children?
