Judge Sends 3 Young Children to Jail For Refusing to Visit Their Father

Children sent to jail

A judge who unsuccessfully tried to arrange child visitation for a father, decided that the best way to deal with the problem was to send the children to jail, according to court documents in Michigan.

Oakland County Circuit Judge Lisa Gorcyca ruled that the three children of Maya Tsimhoni are in contempt of court for refusing to meet with their father.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the children — ages 9, 10, and 15 — were found in civil contempt of court during a June 24 hearing in a bitter six-year custody battle between their parents, Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni and Omer Tsimhoni.

After two weeks in jail, the children remained defiant. The 15-year-old boy told the judge that he will not have a relationship with his father because he saw him hit his mother.

“I ordered you to talk to your father,” replied the judge. “You chose not to talk to your father. You defied a direct court order. It’s direct contempt so I’m finding you guilty of civil contempt . . . 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?”Turning to the children’s mother, who is forbidden from visiting them during their stint in state custody, the judge unleashed a barrage.

“Your children — you need to do a research program on Charlie Manson and the cult that he has. Your behavior in the hall with me months ago, your behavior in this courtroom . . . is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in 46,000 cases,” she said.

To the children, she said further, “You are so mentally messed up right now and it’s not because of your father. And one day you are going to realize what’s going on in this case and you’re going to apologize to your dad.”

The children’s father is a traffic safety researcher and GM engineer who works frequently at a lab in Israel, while their mother is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Michigan.

Police investigated the alleged assault and determined that it never happened. The judge banned the mother or anyone from her family to visit the children in jail.

The children will be kept separated in jail until they agree to visit their father. The children were ordered to receive psychiatric therapy while in jail.

Tagged with