30-day suspension recommended for judge who detained kids for refusing interactions with dad
Judge Lisa Gorcyca.
The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission is recommending a 30-day unpaid suspension and public censure for a judge who sent three children to juvenile detention for refusing visitation with their father.
The Michigan Supreme Court will have the final decision on whether to sanction the judge, Lisa Gorcyca of Oakland County, for the June 2015 incident, report the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News.
The commission’s Nov. 15 opinion (PDF) said that, apart from the incident, Gorcyca, had an exemplary record. But in the case of the three children, Gorcyca abused her contempt powers “out of frustration at being unable to convince them to visit with their father,” according to the opinion. Gorcyca also spoke to the children in language that was “insulting, demeaning and humiliating,” the opinion said.
The commission also said that Gorcyca gave “inaccurate and somewhat misleading” responses to the commission, but her answers weren’t intentionally false. As a result, she should pay $12,500 to cover the costs of an evidentiary hearing to uncover the facts, the commission recommended.
The children were 9, 10 and 13 when Gorcyca sent them to detention. (A transcript had wrongly indicated the oldest boy was 15.)
During a June 2015 contempt hearing, Gorcyca told 13-year-old LT he was “a defiant, contemptuous young man” who should research Charles Manson while in custody, according to a special master’s findings. The 9-year-old girl saw her brother being led away in handcuffs and cried throughout a contempt hearing that followed for her and her 10-year-old brother.
During the second hearing, Gorcyca told the younger children they had been “brainwashed” and the middle boy should “wipe that smirk off your face.” She said the children would remain in detention until they graduate high school, or until their father says they are ready for release.
Gorcyca vacated the contempt orders the following month and granted the father’s motion to move the children to summer camp.
More than 40 hearings had been held in the case and more than a hundred pleadings had been filed. The mother has been represented by 16 lawyers and the father by four.
The commission said Gorcyca had misused “the awesome judicial power of contempt” to vent her frustration. “While dealing with children poses unique problems for any adult,” the commission said, “it makes her actions from the bench even more unacceptable for it strikes at the heart of the proper role of a judge when dealing with children: to be a safe haven and a refuge rather than a bully, a source of guidance rather than just another grown-up barking commands that they cannot understand.”
Related article:
ABAJournal.com: ‘Judge who detained kids for refusing interactions with dad committed misconduct, special master says”
