Judge releases 3 kids locked up for failing to meet with dad
Jul 10, 2015, 6:30 PM
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A judge on Friday released three siblings who have spent two weeks in juvenile detention for refusing to meet with their estranged father.
Oakland County Judge Lisa Gorcyca said she’s sending the children to a summer camp, at the request of the father.
She held a hearing Friday, three days after a TV station reported her June 24 decision to put the kids — ages 15, 10 and 9 — at Children’s Village. They were kept away from juveniles who are locked up there for committing crimes.
“The court finds that is in the children’s best interests to grant the father’s and the guardian ad litem’s motion to allow the children to attend summer camp,” Gorcyca said, referring to lawyers who represent the children.
It isn’t clear what will happen when the two-week camp ends.
“That’s up to the judge,” said Lisa Stern, an attorney for the mother.
The case stems from a divorce that began in 2009. The judge blamed the mother for alienating the two boys and their younger sister from their father.
The Associated Press is withholding the names of the mother and father to protect the identities of the children.
Gorcyca likened the mother’s influence on the children to the Charles Manson California cult in the 1960s, according to a transcript of an earlier hearing.
Neil Rockind, a former prosecutor not involved in the case, said it was wrong to lock up the kids.
“They are still children and learned their behaviors from one or both parents,” Rockind said. “The key point, though, is they committed no crime.”
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