Israeli-American kids freed after weeks in juvie for refusing to talk to father

A US family court judge on Friday released three siblings from juvenile detention after she sent them there last month for refusing her court order to meet with their father.

Israeli-Americans Liam, Natalie and Rowie Tsimhoni are now to be sent to summer camp where their parents can visit them with a supervisor, Click on Detroit reported.

On June 24, Oakland County judge Lisa Gorcyca held Liam Tsimhoni, 14, Natalie Tsimhoni, 9, and Rowie Tsimhoni, 10, in contempt of court for refusing to see their dad, and ordered them jailed in a local juvenile facility. Transcripts of the proceedings indicated she repeatedly insulted the kids, calling Liam “mentally messed up.” Gorcyca threatened that the three would remain jailed until they were 18, and warned the little girl she would have to go to the bathroom in front of strangers in the juvenile detention facility.

Gorcyca reversed her ruling Friday, freeing the three children from the juvenile detention center.

Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni and her ex-husband Omer Tsimhoni, who currently resides in Israel, have been fighting over their children’s custody in a divorce case filed in 2010, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The three kids had said they would not meet with their father, despite Gorcyca’s court order, with Liam maintaining that Omer Tsimhoni had beaten the kids’ mother, Maya, in the past.

Court documents obtained by My Fox Detroit showed that in a June 24 court hearing, Liam apologized if he had broken any rules but said he would not “apologize for not talking to [Omer], because I have a reason for that and that’s because he’s violent and I saw him hit my mom and I’m not going to talk to him.”

The judge shot back that Liam was “a defiant, contemptuous young man.” She called his father “a great man who has gone through hoops for you to have a relationship with you.” She said there was no evidence of violent behavior on the father’s part and claimed the kids had been “brainwashed” by their mother.

According to court documents Gorcyca said, “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’m finding you guilty of civil contempt.

“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,” she told the teenager, adding that he was “mentally messed up.”

Addressing Maya Tsimhoni, the judge told her to research the Charles Manson cult.

When Liam’s sister Nathalie and brother Rowie refused Gorcyca’s order to have lunch with their father in the court cafeteria that same day, the judge said they too would be sent to detention for contempt.

“Do you like going to the bathroom in front of people?” she asked Nathalie. “Is your bed soft and comfortable?”

The judge also ordered that the three be kept apart. She said their mother and her family members would not be allowed to see them.

A statement by the father’s legal team said the situation was “traumatic for everyone involved, and it is unfortunate that the mother’s actions have resulted in this situation.”

According to the communique, the mother “continually alienates the children from their father, and has ignored countless court hearings and rulings.”

Rabbi Jason Miller from the local Jewish community told the Jewish Daily Forward it was “bizarre” that the children were being punished for their parents’ feud. He added that the community was in shock over the children’s treatment.