Judicial ombudsman Eliezer Goldberg determined that statements made by Jerusalem Family Court Judge Phillip Marcus during an affair involvinga homosexual father of twins who were born to a surrogate mother in India expressed a "negative opinion of their sexual preferences," Ynet reported Tuesday.
Dan Goldberg was eventually permitted to bring the twins to Israel after a paternity test confirmed he was their father.
In response to a complaint filed by Jerusalem Open House, former Supreme Court justice Goldberg said he did not doubt that Judge Marcus had the twins' best interest in mind, but criticized the judge for saying during the proceedings that "if it turns out that one of the people sitting hear (meaning the three homosexual petitioners) is a pedophile or a serial killer – there are things the State must look into."
Judicial ombudsman Goldberg also wrote in his response to the complaint that Judge Marcus "did not intend to offend a specific community and used the examples (pedophile, serial killer) because in his opinion such people pose the greatest danger to a child."
Goldberg wrote that while the complainants justifiably took offense to Judge Marcus' comments, he is satisfied with the judge's clarification that he had no intention of offending the gay community.