NY mom’s assisted-suicide note blames ‘predatory’ courts that took her kids
By Shelly RidenourJune 10, 2023 9:00am
Updated
Catherine Kassenoff, a New York attorney who once worked for Gov. Kathy Hochul, posted a letter on Facebook May 27, saying she was scheduled to die by assisted suicide in Switzerland.
Jessie Watford Photography
Catherine Kassenoff faced off against hardened criminals and gang members as a federal prosecutor, and beat breast cancer twice, but said the broken New York family court system would be what killed her.
In a letter posted to Facebook on May 27, the Westchester, NY, mother of three announced she was scheduled to die by assisted suicide in Switzerland later that day.
“It is with a profound heartbreak … that I am writing my last post ever. Today, I will be ending my own life … In the last four years of my life I have woken up every day to a nightmare like no other,” she wrote in her public suicide note.
Catherine, 54 and an attorney who once served as special counsel to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, wrote that she’d recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer — but blamed her decision to die then, and by assisted suicide, on ongoing alleged abuse by her ex-husband and a messy custody battle.
A Westchester family court decision had cut her off from contact with her three daughters, ages 9, 12, and 13.
Despite having no criminal history, mental health issues, or history of substance misuse, Catherine claimed, the court took her home, her dogs, and her life savings and continued to deny her visits with her children.
Catherine posted: “I cannot survive this torment and the grief that comes from such a prolonged separation from my children.” She also alleged abuse by her ex-husband, Allan Kassenoff.
Jessie Watford Photography
“I cannot survive this torment and the grief that comes from such a prolonged separation from my children,” she wrote. “The court system did this to me … It is a predatory system that functions in darkness — through ‘gag orders’ like the one in my case, through a publicly-inaccessible docket, through a closed courtroom, and through ex parte ‘temporary’ orders that are in place for years.”
Friends who saw Catherine’s alarming social media post say they reached out immediately.
In May 27 text messages seen by The Post, Catherine’s friend and colleague Jonathan Davidoff pleaded with her not to go through with the suicide, to which she replied “Can’t put my kids through this any longer Jonathan. Please fight the fight I cannot.”
Cobie Jane, a friend and a mother also fighting the family court system after being cut off from her children in 2018, described Catherine as “laser-focused on how to support her girls.”
Confirmation of Catherine’s death may not be available for four to six weeks.
Catherine Youssef Kassenoff/Facebook
She said she wrote to Catherine right after receiving an email version of the suicide note and that Catherine wrote back: “I am so happy to hear from you and so sad for both of us. Please use my story to get change accomplished. Please don’t use it to give up too. I feel so completely connected to you.”
No one The Post spoke to has heard from Catherine since.
According to Ms. Magazine, attorney Wayne Baker, the executor of Catherine’s estate, said he is awaiting definitive confirmation of her death, which could take four to six weeks.
Like many of Catherine’s friends, he believes she did decide to die in Switzerland because she felt she had no other options left.
“Catherine once said someone is going to have to die before they take these things [alleged abuse by the family court] seriously,” said her good friend and self-described fellow survivor and advocate, Elizabeth Harding Wedinstein. “Catherine was a warrior. I hope they’re paying attention now.”
Catherine and Allan Kassenoff married in 2006 and he filed for divorce in 2019.
Catherine’s Facebook post on the day of her alleged suicide detailed her legal fight for her daughters.
Friends of Catherine said the former couple’s problems started well before the divorce proceedings began.
In videos that now have over 10 million views on TikTok, influencer @therobbieharvey chronicles Allan’s alleged verbal and emotional abuse toward Catherine and their daughters.
In one video Allan is heard shouting “I hate you” at Catherine. He also calls her a “fat, old loser.”
In another disturbing video, a young girl can be heard crying in the background as Allan says he refuses to take his daughter to school: “Take your daughter. I’m not taking her. She’s spoiled and I’m not taking her. She will be punished by not going today.”
He continues about his daughter: “I’m not dealing with her anymore. I will no longer take her to activities over the weekend. I will no longer do nice things for her. She will be treated the way everyone else is.”
Kassenoff calls Catherine a “fat, old loser” and refused to take their daughter to school because “she’s spoiled,” videos found on TikTok and Twitter show.
@therobbieharvey/TikTok
The Post has asked Allan’s lawyer for comment on the videos.
Catherine’s final Facebook message included a now-defunct Dropbox link that contained thousands of court filings and numerous legal documents, medical records, and videos, including the videos used in the TikToks.
She explained that the contents of these files prove she did nothing wrong and maintained that her children were taken away as a result of “unfair rulings” “a disgraced custody evaluator,” a money-motivated attorney for the children, and the court favoring the “monied party.”
Before her alleged death, Catherine was successful in proving some of her allegations about the dysfunctional court proceedings.
Catherine succeeded in proving some of her allegations about the family court’s dysfunction before her death.
Jessie Watford Photography
She filed a complaint of misconduct against Marc T. Abrams, the custody evaluator who recommended that her ex-husband have sole custody of the girls, resulting in Abrams’ removal from the Mental Health Professional Certification Committee, State of New York, 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 Abrams’ wedding. Catherine called out this potential bias and conflict of interest, and Judge Lewis Lubell recused himself from the case.
Carol Most, the attorney for the children, was also dismissed from the case after Catherine sued her for misconduct.
The court also denied Most a large portion of the $270,000 she billed the Kassenoffs for services.
At the time of her alleged death, Catherine was reportedly not allowed to be with her daughters.
Jessie Watford Photography
According to Ms., Catherine had gone from having extremely limited visits with her daughters to longer unsupervised ones.
The magazine reported that Catherine was arrested in January 2022 for violating a protective order and approaching one of her daughters.
Afterward, she was let go from her job at the governor’s office.
All charges were later dismissed.
Friends of Catherine reached out to her after she posted her Facebook announcement, but she insisted her mind could not be changed — she asked them to keep fighting for her.
Jessie Watford Photography
In March 2023 the family’s therapist issued a report urging the court to give Catherine more time with her daughters, according to a report in the Dropbox files.
Despite all the new information in her favor, a new forensic evaluator, as Ms. reported, “rubber-stamped disgraced Abrams’ old, erroneous report stating Catherine was manipulating her daughters.”
As of May, Catherine was still unable to see her children.
In Catherine’s parting statement, she wrote, “Their father has spent years and millions of dollars — over $3 million — to eliminate me from our girls’ lives … He will never relent … As long as I am alive and want to see them, they will be damaged over and over again with every attempt I make. What is the point of that? The last thing I want to do is make my own children suffer.”
Although it is unknown exactly where in Switzerland Catherine went for her assisted suicide, clinics like Dignitas offer the service in apartments like the one above.
Shutterstock
Allan issued a statement to The Post via his attorney Gus Dimopoulous. It reads, in part:
“At every stage of this four-year custody dispute, the court system has acted responsibly and thoroughly. Following a neutral forensic evaluator’s assessment, the court ordered an immediate order granting their father sole legal and physical custody. The court also issued an urgent order of protection against Ms. Kassenoff eliminating unsupervised interactions with the children based on what they observed when they were with their mother … While it is always difficult limiting a parent’s access to their children, given the circumstances of this case, it was found to be in the best interest of the children to take these steps urgently. The children have been in our client’s care for 3 ½ years and they are safe and healthy.”
At a vigil for Catherine held at Stanz Cafe in Larchmont, NY, on Monday night, friends, court reform advocates, and over a dozen other mothers who say they are also victims of the family court vowed to seek justice — saying her alleged death demonstrates the need for an immediate investigation into the New York family court system.
Wedinstein, who organized the event, said she believes she and Catherine were sent here to help reform the courts. “Judges are kidnapping children from safe, protective parents,” she said. “We must stop this!”
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
Greenberg Traurig, the law firm where Allan works as an attorney, issued a statement saying they’re conducting an internal investigation while the father is taking a voluntary leave of absence to focus on his family.
Article: (https://nypost.com/2023/06/10/mom-posted-assisted-suicide-note-to-facebook-after-custody-battle/)
Archive: (https://archive.fo/57kEf)
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This story is giving me very strong Near/Byuu vibes, the troon who faked a suicide and tried to blame KF for it. (Sorry for the lack of images and archiving but I'm not adjusted to using KF on Tor yet)
Attorney Catherine Kassenoff was married to attorney Alex Kassenoff in wealthy Westchester, NY. They had three daughters. In 2019 the divorced and started a nasty custody battle. Eventually Catherine lost custody of her daughters and could only have supervised visits with them. Of course, she did not believe this was because of her own unhinged behavior but decided it was a conspiracy of her ex-husband and the NY Family courts. After being repeatedly denied and new custody evaluators and psychologists once again agreeing she was batshit crazy and shouldn't have custody of her children, or even unsupervised visits, she announced she had terminal cancer (zero proof of this) and had gone to an assisted suicide center in Switzerland to end her life.
She posted her "suicide note" on May 27 on FB.
This article in the NY Post shows the entire "suicide post" but it's been removed from FB
The very odd caveat that it would take "six weeks to confirm her death" was added afterwards, even though suicide centers require next-of-kin or legal contacts to make notification of death. Catherine referred people to her latest attorney for questions but for some odd reason didn't add him to the contact list so the Swiss could confirm her demise to him.
She had not got much attention for her custody fight except for a small mention in Ms. Magazine in 2021 that detailed the court battles that mother's accused of "parental alienation" face. But a few days after her purported suicide note she finally got a local NY TV station to run a story about it on June 2. Note the use of "allegedly"
Catherine had also been leaking info to a local NY blogger Frank Parlato for weeks and they have been breathelessly promoting the story. After two weeks they finally run a story that admits there's zero proof she's dead and not even her own attorney had any evidence she's dead or traveled to Switzerland.
But the report she was very serious about this and had zoom meetings with someone that has approved assisted suicides, while at the same time admitting she was not in the "two week" time frame required by such centers. Catherine would have to stay in Switzerland for a minimum of two weeks to be approved by any of their centers and she was definitely in NY twelve days before her suicide note was posted on FB.
Catherine also announced in her FB post that she had terminal cancer, something that absolutely no one else had heard about, not even the supposed suicide-doctor that was going to green light her Swiss death trip.
After a bit of coverage some TikTok drama hounds started reporting on her story and a few FB groups started beating the drum up some media attention. So two weeks after he supposed suicide, still with no proof she was dead, the tabloids realized this was good click bait and started covering the story.
Here are some links, but every shoddy online tabloid is running this type of story.
Her ex- husband apparently resigned from his law firm this morning due to the media circus being created.
Catherine also published a trove of curated legal documents, which included the psychological reports of her three daughters. Catherine had no problem publicly publishing her daughter's private information in her attempt to ruin her ex-husband's life. She appears to be a top-tier psycho and seems to have dozens of sock puppet accounts trying to stoke the flames of this stunt on twitter, comment sections, tiktok and FB groups.
I'm mostly just appalled by all the outlets willing to cover this story with absolutely no proof the woman is dead. Some of the stories try to cover their ass with quotes or allegedly, but even that's falling away. All of the stories are entirely based on one FB post, by her, and nothing else. They are cooperating with a unhinged woman's desperate campaign to destroy her ex and also portraying her as the fucking victim. Insane. I doubt she can hide as long as Near has.
I have a link to the files Catherine uploaded with her ranting "suicide note" and will try to figure a way to link to them without using google drive in the comments.
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DING DONG BANNU
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