Three kids from Bloomfield Hills in Michigan are going to spend their summer vacation in a juvenile detention facility. Judge Lisa Gorcyca sentenced them to detention after they refused to follow court orders to have lunch with their father at the Oakland County Family Court cafeteria.
The children, ages 9, 10 and 14, are in the middle of their parents' custody battle since December 2009.
Their mother, Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni, has been fighting with her former husband, Omer Tsimhoni, who lives in Israel, over the custody of their three children. According to court transcripts, Judge Gorcyca feels that the children have been brainwashed against seeing their father.
"Your dad is a good man who loves you. You have been brainwashed. You are brainwashed. This is not normal behavior," the judge said.
The siblings were warned by Judge Gorcyca that if they continued to refuse to see their father, she would hold them in contempt of court and send them to Children's Village, a juvenile jail which houses as many as 100 to 200 child offenders.
One of the children refused to comply with the order because their father allegedly hit their mother and argued that they weren't doing anything wrong by refusing to see him. However, Judge Gorcyca had another message for them.
"You - I ordered you to talk to your father. You chose not to talk to your father. You defied a direct court order. It's direct contempt, so I am finding you guilty of civil contempt," she said.
The children still refused to cooperate, and true to her word, the judge sentenced them to Children's Village on June 24. The siblings will not be kept in the same cell and will not be allowed contact with each other for the duration of their detention.
Due to the sensitive nature of the case, attorneys for the family and Children's Village will not comment on the issue.
According to family court experts, Judge Gorcyca's ruling is unusual but not unheard of in cases of children not cooperating with visitation agreements made in court.
