"I thought there were rules here" - out of the babe's mouth, or the false promise of discipline against the Michigan #JudgeLisaGorcyca

I wrote about judge Lisa Gorcyca, of the State of Michigan, in two blogs so far, before and after she was disciplined - and celebrated her defiance to that discipline with a flash-mob of supporters.

In this blog I will analyze in more detail the actual order of discipline against Judge Lisa Gorcyca and whether the discipline was adequate to misconduct committed by Judge Lisa Gorcyca that was reflected in court documents.

So far I could spot, in addition to what I pointed out in the previous blogs, the following misconduct of Judge Lisa Gorcyca:

I.  Lying to court - a disbarring offense

II.  Ex parte communications with children's prosecutor before the prosecutor filed a contempt proceeding, advocacy for the prosecution (her own former office of 15 years) and acting upon ex parte advice of the prosecutor as to how to handle the case

Judge Lisa Gorcyca was a prosecutor for 15 years and could not claim she did not know that it is the prosecutor's job, not the judge's to bring criminal contempt proceedings.

Moreover, in such proceedings, children would be entitled to the full panoply of constitutional rights - arraignment, discovery, pre-trial motions and hearings and then the trial.

None of that was provided by Judge Gorcyca to the children.

Judge Lisa Gorcyca also apparently lied stating that she only snapped on June 24, 2015 because before that she exercised "judicial restraint", while it was likely because the lawsuit against her husband was finally settled on June 9, 2015 and Judge Lisa Gorcyca needed somebody to take her frustration out on.

III.  THREATENING JAIL TIME FOR CHILDREN WHO ARE UNWILLING TO SEE THEIR FATHER

While seeing both parents may be beneficial to the children, children are autonomous people and not slaves of their parents or of the court, and must have some autonomy and freedom of association rights, including the right to refuse to see a parent they do not want to see because he is abusive to the other parent.

Here, Judge Lisa Gorcyca clearly violated children's freedom of association right by threatening them with jail time for years and by separation from one another and from their mother - and fulfilling that threat, for several months - simply because they insisted they did not want to see their father.

Contempt of court is not failure to satisfy every judicial whim, but failure to comply with a LAWFUL order of the court.

An order to children to see their father whom they did not want to see - or go to jail - is not a lawful order.

Judge Lisa Gorcyca acted like a capricious aristocrat acting on a whim when she first ordered children to see their father who they did not want to see - "or else" - and then put them in jail, having intentionally separated them from one another and from their mother.

IV. HOLDING THE OLDER BOY IN CRIMINAL CONTEMPT OF COURT WHEN THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF ANY WRITTEN COURT ORDER HE VIOLATED

On June 24, 2015, Judge Lisa Gorcyca held a contempt hearing and held LT, the oldest of the Tsimhani children, the 14-year-old boy, in contempt of court.

Yet, there was no evidence of any written order that the boy allegedly violated.  Judge Gorcyca's own order provided for visitation with LT only in the future, in July of 2015.

The presence of the boy LT on June 24, 2015 in court during visitation of his father with his younger siblings was simply a matter of chance, his mother brought him "along", possibly, not to leave him home alone, but he did not have to come to court on the day when he was jailed.

V. UNDER THREATS OF JAIL, JUDGE GORCYCA MADE AN 11--YEAR-OLD BOY WHO CLAIMED HE WAS ABUSED BY HIS FATHER ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS TO MEET WITH HIS FATHER

So, a young child tells the judge who is supposed to protect the child that his father assaulted him, and was mean to him many times, and that's why the child does not want to see his father  - and the judge claims that "there is no evidence" of it, meaning that she tells the boy he is lying, and threatens to send the child to jail if the child does not agree to spend time with his abuser.

VI.  JUDGE GORCYCA CREATED EVIDENCE AND ACTED AS THE ADVOCATE AND UNSWORN WITNESS FOR THE FATHER

Of course, Judge Gorcyca had absolutely no right to create evidence, or to tell the kids, as an unsworn witness on behalf of the father, that their father loves them - it was not her personal knowledge, she could not know the father's mind and could not testify on his behalf of the father's feelings even if she was his official witness, such testimony about another's feelings would have been inadmissible.

After Judge Gorcyca created evidence and acted as an advocate and unsworn witness on behalf of the father, she had only one way out of the situation - immediate recusal.

Yet, she plunged right on.

When the THREE children - including the older boy LT who was not even supposed to be there, refused to see their father on June 24, 2015, Judge Gorcyca appointed attorneys, called in extra sheriff support "anticipating" that she will put children in jail and held contempt hearings for all three children - including the oldest one, LT, who did not violate any court orders, but who Judge Gorcyca chose to demean and insult the most:

VII.  GORCYCA HELD THE OLDEST BOY IN CRIMINAL CONTEMPT WHILE HE VIOLATED NO COURT ORDER, AND SENTENCED HIM TO INCARCERATION FOR FOUR YEARS, AS FOR A FELONY, WITH NO CONTACT WITH THE MOTHER OR OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS, BUT THE ABUSIVE FATHER - A CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT IN VIOLATION OF THE 8th Amendment

Judge Lisa Gorcyca was a criminal prosecutor from 1993 to 2008 before she came to the bench.

She had to know how criminal contempt proceedings are brought and prosecuted.

Yet, she first held the oldest boy in a semblance of civil contempt where the contemnor in custody "holds the keys to his own jail cell by complying with the court order".

But there was no court order to comply with, and Judge Gorcyca gave the key to the jail cell to the father and not to the boy himself, and knowing that the father was leaving out of the country for a prolonged period of time, so it was criminal contempt.

Yet, for criminal contempt Judge Gorcyca sentenced the boy to 4 years in prison, which is a felony - for which the boy had to be indicted by the grand jury, with charges being presented by a prosecutor, with all the criminal procedure followed, which also did not happen.  Since the boy was not in contempt of anything to begin with, and all procedure was screwed up, it was a gross violation of his 14th and 4th Amendment rights.

Finally, even an incarcerated felon has a right to see his family at visitation time, and Judge Gorcyca expressly prohibited visitation by certain members of the family - which was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment.

Judge Gorcyca's incompetence was staggering - even the boy appeared "confused" and said that he thought there should be rules to put him in jail.

And, the presiding "Master" at the judicial disciplinary proceedings stated that no wonder the boy was confused since none of the required procedure and law for civil or criminal contempt was followed.

VIII.  JUDGE GORCYCA ASSIGNED INCOMPETENT OR COWARDLY ATTORNEYS TO CHILDREN WHO DID NOT EVEN FILE APPEALS OF THE CONTEMPT PROCEEDINGS, NOR MADE ANY OBJECTIONS

Judge Gorcyca tried to defend herself by claiming that none of the 3 attorneys she assigned to the children in the instant contempt proceedings objected or appealed the contempt decision.

Yet, children's attorneys asked to assign appellate counsel, and it became unnecessary because Lisa Gorcyca dismissed contempt proceedings, after a media frenzy over jailing the kids, and before the appeal was filed - thus making appeals of the case moot.

Yet, the children's attorneys conspicuously did not participate in signing the letter of support of Judge Gorcyca before she was disciplined, I do not know about the attorney flash-mob after the discipline was imposed that gave a standing ovation to Judge Gorcyca as soon as she was disciplined in this case.

Attorneys for the children involved in the case were, according to the disciplinary decision against Judge Gorcyca:

1. William Lansat, Guardian Ad Litem for all three children;

and three attorneys appointed by Lisa Gorcyca specifically for contempt proceedings, individually for the three children:

1. G. Jeffrey Schwartz for the 14-year-old boy, LT;
2. Michael Dean for the 11-year-old boy, RT; and
3. Karen Cook for the 9-year-old girl, NT

IX.  CHILDREN MAY HAVE BEEN INCARCERATED TO "BREAK" THE MOTHER AND COERCE HER INTO A SETTLEMENT

In a "cautionary story" published on June 6, 2016, during the pendency of proceedings against Lisa Gorcyca, one of the plaintiffs against Gorcyca's husband, former Oakland County District Attorney David Gorcyca, Tali Wendrow (see my previous blog about that lawsuit here), indicated that, based on the treatment of her family by David Gorcyca and his staff, it appears that what Judge Lisa Gorcyca was doing was part of her training and of the DA's office's policy to break people so that they would concede certain points in litigation.

Gorcyca was clearly "breaking" - the kids and their mother, to do what they considered inappropriate to do, socialize with their abuser.

This is not the first custody case where people have complained against Judge Gorcyca.

In another case, the mother claimed that Judge Gorcyca changed custody to the father without an evidentiary hearing, in violation of existing precedent, and that her "friend of the court" attorney told the mother that she has "no constitutional rights here".

Judge Gorcyca also reportedly jailed a woman with stage 3 cancer, right after a session of chemotherapy (and that was the 5th time Judge Gorcyca jailed that particular woman on civil contempt charges).

After ALL the above, here is what lawyers wrote to the community IN SUPPORT of judge Lisa Gorcyca:

Of course, the last name Gorcyca - a "Jeffrey Gorcyca" surfaced in support of Judge Lisa Gorcyca.  Since the last name Gorcyca is not a common last name in the U.S., we may carefully assume that it is some kind of a relative who supported Gorcyca.  I wonder if that supposed relative is practicing in front of Judge Gorcyca.

Let's compare the language of the disciplinary decision and the language of the letter.

The disciplinary Master found that judge Gorcyca:

1) lied to the court;

2) confused civil and criminal contempt proceedings;

3) engaged in ex parte communications with the prosecutor;

4) violated procedure as to all kids in holding them in contempt, and especially as to the oldest boy whom she sent to detention without violation of ANY written court orders.

All the while the judge was demeaning, insulting and intimidating kids and acting as the advocate of their father - which points out the lack of competence, necessary judicial temperament, honesty, and integrity.

The judge's opinion of what was in the "best interests of the child" (which, as she ordered, was, obviously, jail, going to the bathroom in front of other people until they are 18, and no contact with each other or their mother) was not swayed even by the fact that three children unanimously preferred jail and being deprived of contacts with one another and their mother, as well as being subjected to invasion of privacy and humiliation, rather than to have any contacts with their father.

Judge Gorcyca clearly was "breaking" the kids to her will - which was NOT within her judicial function or authority to do as part of the custody proceedings, but was likely part of her prosecutorial training to do, as claimed by the plaintiff against her husband and former boss, former Oakland County DA David Gorcyca.

In other words, it is grounds - and ample grounds - for taking Judge Gorcyca off the bench.  And the Master did not even consider that Judge Corcyca's behavior was a simple snapping against an innocent victim in reaction to a lawsuit by somebody else against her husband.

I will just single out the key phrases (as I see them, of course) in the lawyers' support letter of Judge Gorcyca, with some comments:

That is a conclusory statement, which does not disclose what exactly was unfair.  The obvious problem that lawyers see here is exposure - "publicly".  Gorcyca complained about the media on July 10, 2015 when she dismissed her own contempt proceedings after exposure in the media - according to the disciplinary decision.

That is another conclusory piece, which does not specify what exactly is Judge Lisa Gorcyca's "immence contribution" to that community, and why the contribution, whatever it is, should outweigh her documented misconduct.  The word combination "salacious media sound bites" is equally conclusory, since it does not specify which "media sound bites" the signing attorneys find "salacious".

Apparently, attorneys appearing in front of a judge may find anything negative published against the judge "salacious" - to please the judge and drum up business for themselves, such appeal to the public has little, if any credibility.

Judge Gorcyca, according to attorneys appearing in front of her, has

1. an "unwavering compassion for the people" who appear in front of her,
2. to those people who are most "vulnerable" and
3. a deep dedication to children.

Yet, the "unwavering compassion" demonstrated by Judge Gorcyca is not a little bit lopsided - it appears that the judge chooses the side she likes better, takes that side and starts to advocate for it instead of being a neutral arbiter, and she is advocating with much "unwavering compassion", but only to that one side of litigation, to the detriment of all other people involved.

As to the "most vulnerable people" in the community, the report about sending a stage-3 cancer patient just out of chemo to jail for failure to provide an affidavit speaks for itself.

Nor did I see a letter directly from those "vulnerable people" in the community in support of Judge Gorcyca.

As to Judge Gorcyca's "deep dedication" to children, God save us from that dedication, and transcripts of how exactly Judge Gorcyca treated the Tsimhoni children speaks louder than any conclusory sycophanting of attorneys who hope to please and not to ire Judge Gorcyca.

The letter reminds me of such "letters to the editor" in the Soviet Union asking to hang those treasonous whoever "as evil dogs" - and this is about the same as what attorneys say about the press.  People signing such letters do that for the obvious reason of self-preservation, which does not justify insulting people's intelligence and attempting to mislead the public as to misconduct and performance of a public official.

My position at all times was that a person must do his or her job properly FIRST and FOREMOST.

Judge Gorcyca's job is to be a judge.

She cannot prove her competency or fitness to be a judge by stating that she sits on some charity boards.  In fact, if such "service" on charity boards distracts Judge Gorcyca's from brushing up on her competence, as the Tsimhoni case clearly showed, she should abstain from "helping" the community by sitting on those boards.

With a $140,000 a year salary Judge Gorcyca should be doing her job, first and foremost, and do whatever else she wants to do in her free time - and in such a way that it would not create conflicts of interest.

When a judge sits on boards helping "victims of domestic abuse", that means the judge is an advocate for such victims, which is also not good, because the judge must be neutral, so when attorneys even admit that they know that a judge puts herself into the position of advocacy, and present it as the judge's good side, rather than a conflict of interest, that tells a lot about competency of attorneys who signed the letter.

But, even if judges would be allowed to advocate for causes that they adjudicate, what kind of advocate the judge is for victims of domestic abuse if she disregards statements of victims of domestic abuse and jails them for not wanting to communicate with their own abuser?

Then, after listing what duties Judge Gorcyca performed as a prosecutor and what entities or units she founded - which is irrelevant to the issue whether she did or did not commit documented misconduct in the Tsimhoni case - attorneys list Judge Gorcyca's awards:

Well, when sycophants bestow awards upon one another, the value of such awards to the community is zero.

The public should not care what is:

1. an "Esteemed Woman of Michigan", or
2. why Gorcyca got a "Wonder Woman" award, or
3. why Gorcyca was named "Crime Fighting Mom" when she was a judge for 4 years already and, supposedly, a neutral adjudicator, not an advocate "fighting crime", and certainly
4. it is rather a matter of curiosity why Gorcyca, with all her "achievements", was named "Top Circuit Judge" of 2014, 2015 and 2016 - the years when she was investigated and prosecuted.

The awards in 2015, 2016, based on "integrity, knowledge of the law, efficiency and judicial temperament" was clearly meant as an antidote to disciplinary proceedings and exposure of the opposite qualities in the media.

This is the letter by trial attorneys to a trial (disciplinary court).

These people KNOW what they are doing and WHY.

If they would come with such a "character reference" to court, their case would be thrown out because it is IRRELEVANT what they think and say about the judge always being respectful when DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE of this particular case, says otherwise.

The question is - whether Judge Gorcyca was acted in an incompetent, dishonest and unfit manner in THIS particular case which is the subject of the complaint.

All the conclusory character references to the contrary, signed by attorneys whose licenses are regulated by the judiciary and who get their piece of bread with salmon from the judiciary, is a very easily discernible brown-nosing and nothing else.

The attorneys do not say - we have read the record of the proceedings, and we, as amici curiae, say that there is not legal basis for charges (they cannot say that, because there is a basis), or that the record is not authentic (they cannot say that, because, most likely, they did not read the record, and there was no question about authenticity of the record, because the record was created by Judge Gorcyca's own court personnel).

This statement is laughable, and especially when it is coming from trial lawyers, 50 of them, because nobody can testify with any degree of certainty about what is happening in another person's mind.

Any adjudicator may perceive this statement as a blunt attempt to pressure them to arrive to a certain conclusion - because it is the adjudicator's role to make such a determination, and all the attorneys could have done is offer their humble opinion, yet they didn't, and the letter is not testimony under oath either.

The saddest part of the letter, though (in my opinion, of course) is this paragraph:

Attorneys who, after reading the record that was published and still continue to support the monster judge "without reservation", display that they are desperate to make a living by any means, and a desperate to support the judge no matter what misconduct she commits.

Remember the "kids for cash" scandal in Pennsylvania.

Why the "canaries did not sing" and why the attorneys did not report misconduct of judge Marc Ciavarella when he was SELLING kids into juvenile facilities.

First of all, such a situation cannot be excluded with Judge Gorcyca, after all she is "serving" on so many boards and she and her husband insinuated herself into the local government for so long that anything is possible.

But, that the legal profession would DEFY THE RECORD of misconduct, bad misconduct, egregious misconduct, with such letters of support and even a standing ovation to a judge who committed it - really tells the public who is who.

Well, at least these attorneys outed themselves, so that the public would know who would sell them - to Judge Gorcyca or to another judge.

A single silver lining in this big mess.

 Because with all the above misconduct, Judge Lisa Gorcyca was allowed to continue to be a judge.

To the detriment of the public at large and to the joy of sycophants.

#MaleChauvinistGalore on the bench - can one re-educate a sexist judge?

I recently wrote a blog about law graduates' support for the California Judge Persky

who has become a symbol of judicial favoritism to white rich rapists in this country.

Those aspiring legal professionals claim that Judge Persky should not be recalled because what he did - including making comments that belittled the victim - was a matter of "judicial discretion".

At the very same time a Canadian judge, this white charmer, by the name of Robin Champ,

stands to be disciplined because he stated to the victim of rape: "why didn't you just keep you knees together" - which was, basically, what Judge Persky implied, too, when he imposed a sentence upon the rapist of an unconscious woman less than for a petty theft.

In the U.S. recently, a judge in Montana, G. Todd Baugh, this white man

was reprimanded for giving a lenient sentence to the rapist of a 14-year-old girl while claiming that the raped child looked older than her age and was as responsible for the crime as the defendant.

Reprimanded - but not taken off the bench.

Yet, in Louisiana judge J. Robin Free 

has been recently suspended and ordered to pay over $11,000 of costs to the Judicial Qualifications Commission for, among other things,  "Scalia-like" behavior - accepting a trip from an attorney who obtained a $1.2 million settlement in a case tried in front of the judge,  and for joking about domestic violence against women in criminal proceedings.

And, in Nevada the judicial qualification authorities review a complaint against Judge Conrad Hafen

for handcuffing a female attorney when she was making a constitutional argument on behalf of her indigent client.

Four judges disciplined or turned in for discipline for sexist behavior, and one in the neighboring Canada.

All of the above five sexist judges are white.

The law graduates - male and female - who support Judge Persky are also predominantly white (only one dark-colored girl among 7 supporters of Judge Persky).

It appears that the "rape culture", that the woman is to blame, is part of "white male privilege".  

No wonder that many women are leaving the legal profession - what judges stated openly in rape cases, they practice impliedly against female attorneys, and many male law partners profess behind closed doors of their law firms.

Other women - like Stanford law graduates, like a petite New York attorney who first considered a surgery to change her voice to more masculine, and then took "speech therapy" sessions to change her mannerisms and speech to a more masculine, to succeed in the sexist world - try to adjust to male chauvinists by joining their ranks, mimicking them or expressing support for them.

Sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, disdainful attitude to females by white males in power is nothing new.

Media coverage and increasing public outrage against it, powered by social media, is new.

The public is right - the #MaleChauvinistGalore in public courts should not be allowed to continue.

California constituents should continue to pressure their government to remove Persky off the bench.

"Reprimands" mean nothing.

In fact, some judges - like judge Lisa Gorcyca in Michigan - wear judicial discipline (censure) like a badge of honor and host flash-mobs to practically celebrate her defiance to that discipline, complete with crowds of attorney practicing in front of the judge coming to the flash-mob, with flowers, standing ovations and hand-shaking receiving lines.

If judges engage in egregious misconduct, with the education and experience that judges have even before they come to the bench, and with the oaths they took before they came to the bench, such oath-breaking behavior and misconduct is not curable.

Such people cannot be re-educated, and should not be spared.

One cannot re-educate a middle-aged racist.

One cannot re-educate a middle-aged sexist.

One cannot re-educate people who believe they came to the bench as to their own fiefdom, to establish their own rules, and rule by whim and by favor to those who please them better.

But, the public can and should remove those judicial public servants from positions of power where they can hurt people.

Such people should not be on the bench.

Period.

A complaint has been filed against judge Brenda Weaver of North Georgia who orchestrated criminal prosecution against a publisher and an attorney who sought open records of the judge's misconduct

An update to my July 3, 2016 blog about the onslaught by the government upon people documenting governmental misconduct, including through open records request.

A complaint has been reportedly filed against the Georgia judge Brenda Weaver who orchestrated filing of criminal charges against a publisher, Mark Thomason, and his attorney Russell Stookey.

I will continue covering this story.

Stay tuned.

Michigan judge Lisa Gorcyca snaps against innocent litigants and children after a million-dollar lawsuit against her husband settles, is censured - and defies censure by hosting a flashmob in her support, complete with flowers, standing ovation, and her husband accepting handshakes from lawyers in a "receiving line"

I wrote on this blog about a judge from the State of Michigan, Lisa Gorcyca ("gorcyca"/"горчица" means "mustard" in Russian, by the way) who ordered three children to jail, and separated from each other, without visitation from the mother, "until they turn 18", for refusing to go to lunch with their father who one of the child testified abused their mother.

Lisa Gorcyca not only sent children to jail, but did it in a sadistic way, and made sadistic comments during the "procedure".

No motions to recuse during that sadistic procedure, from attorneys for children, were mentioned in the press.

Lisa Gorcyca rejected the child's testimony that the father abused the mother in front of him, and reports from social services and police confirming that and stated that there was NO evidence of such abuse.

Thus, for judge Gorcyca, the child's testimony about one parent abusing another in front of the child - which in any state constitutes child neglect chargeable against the abuser (here, the father) - is not evidence at all, because it is coming from a child.

So, Judge Gorcyca showed herself as an authoritarian and sadistic jerk towards the children - and an international outcry in the media and social media followed.

Michigan judicial disciplinary system responded to the outcry - with strong words and a slap on the wrist not matching the strong words.

Right after the order of discipline was issued, lawyers practicing in front of Gorcyca organized a public display of support, a flash-mob complete with flowers, a standing ovation and shaking the hand of the judge's husband David Gorcyca, who apparently was also present there.

Here is the happy couple, David Gorcyca and Lisa Gorcyca:

Judge Gorcyca's husband David Gorcyca is a former prosecutor in the same county who reportedly retired in 2008.

When asked in 2008 about his wife Lisa Gorcyca running for a judge, David Gorcyca responded that his wife has more experience as a prosecutor than he does - and he had by that time 15 years of prosecutorial experience, that she is a "very people-oriented and is very conscientious about her job":

So - if Judge Gorcyca was conscientious about her job and had such a vast prosecutorial experience, and that included working with law enforcement and social services, why disregard the child's testimony and law enforcement/social services report regarding domestic abuse of one parent against another in front of the child?

Actually, the reason why Judge Gorcyca suddenly changed her position regarding domestic violence and child neglect and decided not only to disregard testimony of the child, his siblings and the mother for voicing the issue of domestic abuse, is very personal, so personal that Judge Gorcyca should have been removed from Family Court cases since she is unable to separate her personal feelings on the issue from the job she is doing.

Yet, the appearance of a personal reason is very clear from the timing of when Judge Gorcyca jailed the kids, the manner in which she did it and the way Judge Gorcyca rejected evidence of domestic violence presented by the oldest child.

The kids were reportedly jailed in June of 2015, specifically, on June 24, 2015.

That was just 8 months after Judge Gorcyca's husband and former boss, the former Oakland County District Attorney David Gorcyca, was slapped with a million-dollar judgment in a defamation lawsuit, individually, because he brought unfounded criminal charges against a couple by the last name Wendrow (an unrelated case to the Tsimhoni kids' case), and just 2 weeks after the case settled - for 2 million dollars between the County and David Gorcyca.

David Gorcyca brought child rape charges for alleged rape of his autistic child against the father, Julian Wendrow, and "failure to protect" charges against the mother, Thal Wendrow, and then reportedly dropped the charges for lack of evidence, but reportedly by that time Julian Wendrow spent 80 days in jail and the family was separated for months.

Defamation lawsuits against prosecutors usually result in a dismissal for prosecutorial immunity.

Yet, David Gorcyca was sued for making defamatory comments about the case after he left the prosecutorial office in 2008.

The award by the federal jury included $250,000 to each member of the Wendrow family, including two children.

On June 1, 2015, that is ONE MONTH before Judge Lisa Gorcyca jailed the Tsimhoni kids when the oldest child refused to go to visitation with his father because his father abused his mother in front of him - the lawsuit against David Gorcyca and the county was reportedly settled for 2 million dollars, after a jury verdict of a million dollars against David Gorcyca personally, which certainly hurt financially both David Gorcyca and Lisa Gorcyca.

The defamation lawsuit was brought against Lisa Gorcyca's husband David Gorcyca after he reportedly made statements to the media in 2009, after the case against the Wendrows was dropped for lack of evidence, about the alleged validity of the case.

David Gorcyca also reportedly refused to apologize to the Wendrows, stated that he will apologize to them "over his dead body" and stood by validity of the charges - even after he dropped them for lack of evidence.

David Gorcyca's co-defendant was Deborah Carley who reportedly made defamatory claims that the charges against the Wendrows were valid in her judicial election campaign in 2012.

Deborah Carley lost that election for a judicial position, but was hired as Michigan Assistant Attorney General, and is now Chief of Children and Youth Services Division - despite her misconduct towards a teenager that led to a federal jury award against Deborah Carley for violation of the child's constitutional rights.

The Wendrow case gathered national attention, and it is obvious that, with the notoriety of David Gorcyca and everybody's knowledge that he is the husband of judge Lisa Gorcyca (see that he was present at the obviously pre-arranged standing ovation, complete with flowers and shaking hands in the receiving line of all the present lawyers with David Gorcyca while "honoring" his dishonorable judge-wife Lisa Gorcyca):

That this brown-nosing session was pre-arranged was clear from the fact that 90% of the 130 lawyers reportedly present and participating in the "event", left to "other hearings" after the standing ovation to Lisa Gorcyca, so these 117 busy lawyers (90%) did not just happen to walk by and drop in, they were likely invited there.

Moreover, approximately the same number of attorneys wrote a supporting letter against disciplining Judge Gorcyca when her disciplinary case was pending.

I doubt that any of these attorneys could miss the egregious misconduct of Lisa Gorcyca reported in the case, or the transparent rage that Lisa Gorcyca may have felt for the 7-year litigation against her husband brought by another couple, but based on David Gorcyca's misconduct in office, for improper comments regarding a dropped criminal child sexual abuse case.

Here is what Lisa Gorcyca, as a wife and a judge, went through with the lawsuit against her husband:

• the publicity and indignity of a lawsuit charging misconduct against her husband (while she worked in his office as a prosecutor during the time wrongful charges alleged in the complaint were brought, and thus could be a witness in litigation) during her judicial election campaign;
• 6 years of litigation,
• loss of a prosecutorial position for her husband - David Gorcyca was still the local District Attorney when he was sued, and "did not seek re-election" after the lawsuit, see paragraph 15 from the lawsuit against David Gorcyca obtained from Pacer.gov:

• destruction of reputation for her husband through national and international media coverage because her husband brought a criminal case based on the "facilitated communication" without first checking whether the child is able to so communicate,
• the stress of testimony in front of a federal jury;
• the stress and publicity of a federal jury trial;
• a federal jury verdict of a million dollars against her husband (which bites their joint income and Judge Lisa Gorcyca's own financial well-being), and a settlement for 2 million dollars against the County and her husband only after they appealed, for which more legal fees were required;
• a likely disciplinary proceeding commenced in federal court against David Gorcyca since Pacer.gov shows that there is a "miscellaneous" case opened against David Gorcyca since 2011 (see the gap in the list on the right side in "civil results" below), which is not available to the public, and I will verify through a Freedom of Information Act request whether these proceedings are disciplinary in nature:

Litigation against David Gorcyca lasted from September 11, 2008 when Plaintiffs filed the case in the Oakland Circuit Court, 2 months before Lisa Gorcyca was elected a judge of that court and obviously during her election campaign (the case was removed by the defendants on October 10, 2008 to federal court, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, Case No. 5:08-cv-14324-JCO-MAR) to June 9, 2015, Docket. No. 478, when the case against David Gorcyca was settled and dismissed, see the full docket report of the case here.

June 9, 2015 was 2 weeks before Judge Lisa Gorcyca snapped against the Tsimhoni children on June 24, 2015.

Even though the couple, most likely, did not incur any attorney fees in litigation since, according to the docket report, the same attorneys represented David Gorcyca and the Oakland County,

indicating that those were attorneys, likely, hired by the County's insurance company (at taxpayers' expense) - the mental anguish and stress of the lawsuit could undermine anybody's judgment.

The lawsuit against Judge Gorcyca's husband contained the following allegation against the County investigator - with whom Judge Gorcyca, as the County prosecutor from 1993 to 2008 had to be acquainted and had to guide his actions legally in interrogations of suspects and witnesses:

Judge Gorcyca displayed the EXACT same techniques, manner of interrogation and attitude when she was cajoling, threatening and mocking the oldest Tsimhoni boy and refusing to believe him when he made statements that the judge, who obviously favored the father, did not want to hear.

Moreover, the lawsuit further stated that such tactics were contrary to the state child interview protocol:

Judge Gorcyca, who interrogated the Tsimhoni children, was surely trained - as a prosecutor of 15 years - in the protocol of interviewing children and surely knew, from that training, and from the lawsuit against her husband, that such methods of interrogation were inappropriate.

See the entirety of the complaint against Lisa Gorcyca's husband, his deputy and various law enforcement and school officials here.

At the time of described events Lisa Gorcyca was, and has been, a prosecutor in her husband's office for 15 years, and all the described techniques, including improper interrogation techniques of children, cajoling, mocking and intimidating children, were what she was familiar with, what she knew and employed in her own practice.

Moreover, the techniques of improper separation of the family was used against her husband's victims, and likely, at her husband's (her former boss's direction), as well as such methods of torture and intimidation like:

• having a pre-trial detainee, presumed innocent of any crime, sleep on a concrete floor in a cell for 4 days straight; and
• putting a pre-trial detainee, accused of a sex crime against a child, in general population of convicted criminals, without administrative separation or protection - in violation of all existing jail rules:

Such things are done most likely at the direction of the prosecutor (Lysa Gorcyca's husband, employer and policymaker at the time of events alleged in the lawsuit).

In fact, David Gorcyca WAS, in fact, sued as a policymaker - and Lisa Gorcyca, likely, knew the contents of that lawsuit by heart:

David Gorcyca did not relent and continued to make statements that the criminal proceedings brought against the Wendrows and the separation of their family was justified, and in May of 2010 (Docket No. 163) the Wendrows filed an amended complaint asserting new defamation claims against David Gorcyca, as well as invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, see the Amended Complaint here.

Remember, all those civil charges in the lawsuit, including the invasion of privacy and infliction of emotion distress upon two mentally disabled teenagers, was also against Deborah Carley who, despite a jury verdict on those claims against her, was hired by the Michigan's Attorney General's office and made a Chief of Children's and Youth Services Bureau.

This is the background.

This is the culture of the office where Lisa Gorcyca was bred, trained, raised and conditioned - as well as at home by her husband and boss David Gorcyca who, no doubt, discussed his policy considerations and his strategic moves with his wife and co-prosecutor.

Just simple reading of David Gorcyca and Lisa Gorcyca's biography together with the lawsuit against David Gorcyca, raises red flags all over the place as to Lisa Gorcyca's potential to snap against innocent litigants appearing in front of her, on issues similar to those in her husband's case - as it happened in the Tsimhoni's children's case.

Since Lisa Gorcyca was likely trained, conditioned for years for the sadistic attitude toward children and litigants who she targeted, she is not likely to change - and that's what the disciplinary commission had to take into account when deciding the manner of discipline.

Lisa Gorcyca's sadism displayed in proceedings against the children was not JUST the display of personal sadistic nature of Lisa Gorcyca (which is already a disqualification for judicial office, since it was used against children and the mother), but is likely the result of TRAINING she received in the prosecutorial office of her husband, and, since prosecutors are absolutely immune for anything they do "in office", that obvious training continued - and may be continuing at this time, because now #JudgeLisaGorcyca has absolute judicial immunity and can happily continue in her sadistic and unlawful ways - censure or no censure.

The only reason she was censured is international attention to the case and public outcry around the world.

Not all parents are willing to subject themselves and their family to a media frenzy, so, most likely, Gorcyca can continue in relative safety to do the very same thing she did to Tsimhoni children - or maybe, that is not the only case like that, but other parents are afraid to come forward, as it usually happens.

Judge Gorcyca should surely have been checked by the court administrators - and regularly - as to whether the ongoing lawsuit against her husband was affecting her emotionally and cause her to lash out against children who upset what Judge Gorcyca planned to do in the case.

Gorcyca HAD to be taken off the bench after what she has done, but she wasn't, even though the disciplinary court found egregious misconduct against her, see the decision here.

The connection with her husband's case and the way she snapped had to be noted by the disciplinary court - but it wasn't.

That means, there will be no further monitoring of Judge Lisa Gorcyca by the disciplinary system in the future either, and the Michigan State court administration will not be on the alert for more snapping from Lisa Gorcyca against innocent parents and their children because of her personal triggers, the way she did in the Tsimhoni case.

Apparently, Lisa Gorcyca snapped at the Tsimhoni teenage boy telling the truth she did not like because based on the truth of the Wendrow teenage boy that she and her husband did not like, her husband went through 6 years of litigation, and got a million-dollar jury verdict against him, which settled for 2 million dollars against him and the county just before Lisa Gorcyca snapped.

Enough reason for Judge Gorcyca to hate children telling the truth about misconduct of those in power over them - her husband in the Wendrow case, their own father who Lisa Gorcyca favored in the Tsimhoni case.  

So, the Michigan disciplinary authorities, whose hand was forced to even consider a disciplinary proceeding against Judge Lisa Gorcyca, left her on the bench, without further monitoring.

They left a time bomb on the bench.

And, based on Lisa Gorcyca's history, it is just a matter of time when that time bomb will go off.

And that is especially so that Lisa Gorcyca defiantly attended the flash-mob of lawyers appearing in front of her, in her own support, complete with bouquets of flowers and a standing ovation, and positioned her husband in the receiving line for handshakes with attorneys appearing in front of her - flying the discipline of censure into everybody's face and demonstrating that she does not give a damn about that discipline.

As I said, she is a time bomb waiting to happen - so litigants and attorneys who did not brown-nose her in letters of support and standing ovations should be prepared.

For a detailed analysis of what kind of misconduct Lisa Gorcyca was chargeable with, what the consequences could be, and how the disciplinary court addressed - or failed to address - the matter of misconduct and/or discipline for Judge Lisa Gorcyca, stay tuned.