Catherine Kassenoff Wiki – Catherine Kassenoff Biography

When mother-of-three Catherine Kassenoff announced on social media in May that she planned to commit suicide with help in Switzerland rather than continue a bitter divorce battle in Westchester County, many litigants found themselves caught up in what they say. it is a “corrupt” state court. The establishment was sympathetic to the former special counsel to the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul. “It’s hell,” one mother, who has spent years fighting her ex-husband in Westchester State Supreme Court, told The Post. “It’s almost like they want you to kill yourself.”

“Everyone in Westchester is talking about Kassenoff,” said a White Plains attorney. “We are all in shock.” The Post spoke to several defendants in custody battles unfolding in the Westchester court system, which one mother, currently mired in a lengthy divorce, called “corrupt.” One activist said the court system was used to perpetuate “abuse” by wealthy spouses.

Many spoke of a court system dominated by forensic custody evaluators, who often favor the wealthier parent in bitter custody battles. In such cases, judges order an evaluation of the children involved. Matrimonial lawyers recommend evaluators, who are trained in psychology and make their recommendations to the judge, to their clients. Warring parents are supposed to choose them together. But the parent with the most money often wins, the litigants told The Post.

“These people, who are supposed to be working in the best interests of children, will only talk to you if you pay them hundreds of dollars an hour,” said a businessman who lost custody of his two children after he could no longer afford $350 for hour. time for a forensic custody evaluator recommended by his estranged wife’s attorney. In Kassenoff’s case, she lost custody of her three daughters, ages 9, 12 and 13, after psychiatric evaluator Marc T. Abrams recommended to the judge that her father, attorney Allan Kassenoff, receive sole custody.

“Because New York State courts are so interested in minimizing, suppressing and punishing valid allegations of abuse, I was placed on ‘supervision’ by the courts for saying the girls were telling the truth about their father’s abuse,” she said. Catherine Kassenoff on her suicide note “This monitoring, which cost me $2500 a week at its peak, was at the suggestion of a court-appointed forensic evaluator named Marc Abrams. Abrams was removed from the Custody Forensic Review Panel on August 24, 2021.”

Catherine Kassenoff Age

The age of Catherine Kassenoff is not declared.

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Why Catherine Kassenoff  committed suicide?

She filed a misconduct complaint against Abrams, which resulted in his removal from the Committee on Mental Health Professional Certification, New York State, Appellate Division, Supreme Court, First and Second Judicial Departments as a mental health professional.

During the proceedings, photos surfaced of the judge presiding over the case officiating at Abrams’ wedding. When Kassenoff denounced her alleged bias, Judge Lewis Lubell recused himself from her case. Carol Most, the attorney for Kassenoff’s children, was also fired from the case after Kassenoff sued her for misconduct. Last month, Kassenoff’s estranged husband resigned from the Greenberg Traurig law firm amid intense public backlash.

“The videos circulating on social media over the past two months have been edited, taken out of context, and represent events that occurred more than six years ago,” Allan Kassenoff said in an emailed statement to The Post on Thursday. “They represent me at my worst, during a very toxic relationship when my partner’s mental health was a pressing issue. I’m not proud of how I acted.” He noted that his wife reported him to Child Protective Services eight times and that each investigation resulted in an “unfounded” finding.

“Catherine’s allegations were reported to four separate judges and examined during a two-week custody trial, after which I was awarded sole legal and physical custody and only allowed supervised visitation,” Allan continued. “In addition, two court-appointed neutral forensic experts issued written reports to the court that they found Catherine to be a danger to children and recommended supervised access.” The role of evaluators is just one of many problems plaguing the system in Westchester, said one expert, who told The Post that the main problem is a lack of proper training and motivation on the part of lawyers, judges and defense attorneys. children.

Abuse of the system is particularly prominent in Westchester because money is a big motivator here,” said Monica Getz, who leads the Coalition for Family Justice in Irvington and has firsthand experience. The mother-of-five went through her own difficult divorce from jazz musician Stan Getz, who was addicted to drugs and alcohol, in 1989. He died two years later.

Monica Getz’s nonprofit organization has worked for nearly 40 years to “identify problems and advocate for systemic change” in the justice system. “New York State law requires costly court proceedings in the Supreme Court that especially harm women and leave many abused children without a voice, and protective parents powerless to protect due to dwindling funding,” according to the site. website of her

“The lawyers who are supposed to represent the children often work representing the most aggressive parent and often the most abusive parent,” Getz said. “The person who tells the truth, which in many cases is the mother, is not believed because she is not as adept at manipulation as the abusive parent… Children are often caught in the middle.”

One parent told The Post: “In Westchester, divorce is big business. Custody is always awarded to the wealthy party.” He said Abrams had also been hired as a forensic custody evaluator in their ongoing divorce case. While county-based matrimonial attorneys disagreed entirely with the comment, they did point out some of the quirks of working in a small community where attorneys and judges attend the same functions and are often close. .

Faith Miller, a matrimonial attorney who often represents children’s rights in divorce cases, is married to Alan Scheinkman, who was an administrative judge in Westchester County from 2009 to 2017. He later became the Division’s presiding judge. of Appeals in Brooklyn, appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. It was widely known that if Faith was her adversary, the judge would bend over backwards because her husband was her boss,” said a White Plains matrimonial attorney who did not want to be named. “It took a strong judge to rule against her.”

Kassenoff said the battle against her lawyer husband to win custody of their three daughters was so intense that “for the last four years of my life I have woken up every day to a nightmare like no other,” she wrote in a suicide note. posted on Facebook. Kassenoff, 54, died on May 27 in Oristalstrasse, Switzerland, a small town west of Zurich, according to reports. Her cause of death was not disclosed due to Swiss privacy laws.Read More…….