An Oakland County judge has been found guilty of misconduct in a custody hearing. The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission’s specially appointed master found her ruling to hold three children in contempt of court, sentencing them to time in a juvenile detention center, to be unacceptable in the eyes of the law. The children received the sentence after they were unwilling to interact with their estranged father.
The ruling was delivered following a May trial regarding complaints filed by the Judicial Tenure Commission. The complaints accused the judge of behaving inappropriately during the three children’s custody hearing on June 24, 2015, making rude and angry statements to them and misrepresenting facts pertaining to their sentences.
The case has drawn attention internationally for the surprising behavior of the judge, who remanded the three children to Mandy’s Place, which operates within the Children’s Village juvenile detention center. The judge stated that the sentence was due to the children refusing to participate in court-ordered parenting time with their father. The complaint also noted that the judge spoke angrily to the three children while in the hearing, and told them that they may be forced to remain in the detention center until they turned 18 years old.
Child custody hearings can be frustrating and complicated in many ways, some of which can be quite unexpected. Anyone walking through a child study battle will find that the representation of an experienced family law attorney can protect the rights of the parents and the children, and help to assure a fair resolution.
