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	Hundreds of parents have held protests outside the Oakland County courthouse after learning three children have been in a juvenile detention facility for two weeks after refusing to speak to their father.</p>
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	Parents and lawyers have expressed outrage after it emerged the children &mdash; two boys and a girl aged 9, 10, and 15, have spent the past fortnight in detention for refusing to speak to their father &mdash; whom they have accused of being abusive.</p>
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	The family was in court for a hearing on supervised parenting time when the judge made her ruling.</p>
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	Oakland Circuit Judge Lisa Gorcyca said the children of Maya Tsimhoni were in contempt of court last month and ordered them held at Oakland County Children&rsquo;s Village until they attempt to have a relationship with their father or they turn 18.</p>
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	The children were taken into custody after the June 24 hearing.</p>
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	&ldquo;I do apologise if I didn&rsquo;t understand the rules,&rdquo; said one boy, 15, &ldquo;but I do not apologise for not talking to [the father] because I have a reason for that and that&rsquo;s because he&rsquo;s violent and I saw him hit my mom and I&rsquo;m not going to talk to him.&rdquo;</p>
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	Giving her order, Judge Lisa Gorcyca appeared to compare the 15-year-old to serial killer Charles Manson.</p>
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	&ldquo;I ordered you to talk to your father. You chose not to talk to your father. You defied a direct court order. It&rsquo;s direct contempt so I&rsquo;m finding you guilty of civil contempt.&rdquo;</p>
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	The boy responded: &ldquo;But he was the one that [did] something wrong. I thought there [were] rules ... for not hitting someone.&rdquo;</p>
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	&ldquo;You&rsquo;re very defiant. You have no manners,&rdquo; said the judge. &ldquo;There is no reason why you do not have a relationship with your father.</p>
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	&ldquo;Your father has never been charged with anything. Your father&rsquo;s never been convicted of anything. Your father doesn&rsquo;t have a personal protection order against him. Your father is well-liked and loved by the community, his co-workers, his family [and] his colleagues.</p>
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	&ldquo;You need to do a research programme on Charlie Manson and the cult that he has.&rdquo;</p>
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	Gorcyca banned the mother or anyone from her side of the family from visiting the boy.</p>
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	Tsimhoni&rsquo;s two other children had a hearing later in the day, during which the 10-year-old boy did speak briefly to his father.</p>
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	However, the two siblings refused the opportunity to go for lunch with their father during a court break and the judge subsequently ordered that they, too, go to juvenile detention.</p>
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	The children have been required to undergo psychiatric therapy while at Children&rsquo;s Village and were to &ldquo;be kept away from each other as much as possible&rdquo;, according to a hand-written order from the court.</p>
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	Larry Dubin &mdash; a lawyer who has been a law professor at the University of Detroit Mercy for the last 40 years &mdash; said that he was stunned by Gorcyca&rsquo;s decision.</p>
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	&ldquo;To treat this like a case of contempt where she sends them away until they&rsquo;re willing to comply with court order seems harsh with respect to young children,&rdquo; Dubin said.</p>
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	&ldquo;It certainly can raise all kinds of constitutional issues.&rdquo;</p>
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	Lisa Stern, who is the mother&rsquo;s attorney, said there has been a lengthy court battle between parents, but feels the children should not have to pay the price.</p>
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	Dubin believes that the judge may have abused her power.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/children-jailed-for-not-speaking-to-abusive-father-341778.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/children-jailed-for-not-speaking-to-abusive-father-341778.html</a></p>
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