A Westchester County, New York, woman has reportedly died by assisted suicide in Switzerland after dealing with a years-long custody battle.
The woman, Catherine Kassenoff, lost custody of her three daughters and was also evicted. She spent years fighting for custody of her daughters.
She told Ms. magazine that her husband accused her of having a mental illness and of getting her kids to make false accusations against her husband, both of which she denied.
According to Catherine, her husband spent millions of dollars on the divorce case. In a letter posted on Facebook, Catherine blamed the New York court system for what happened.
On May 27, Catherine posted a letter in which she announced that she would die by assisted suicide, writing "there are simply no other options left."
Catherine had already had breast cancer twice and in the letter wrote that perhaps she could've kept fighting for her kids if she had not recently been diagnosed with cancer again. She said that she couldn't continue dealing with the case while also dealing with cancer treatment.
"In the last four years of my life I have woken up every day to a nightmare like no other," she wrote. "I can no longer endure the abuse and terror of Allan Kassenoff…I have also endured the emotional devastation of being without my children for so long, homeless from Allan's repeated ex parte evictions of me from the homes I own and rented, deprivation of my property and obliteration of my life savings, the loss of my two dogs, the loss of my career and reputation, and the concomitant humiliation and ostracism from all this."
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In addition to the letter, Catherine shared a Dropbox folder that contained videos and court filings.
In the videos, Allan is seen insulting Catherine and saying he hates her. Some videos went viral, causing people to demand that Allan's employer, the law firm Greenberg Traurig, fire him.
Allan had been on a leave of absence, and in a statement from June 11, Greenberg Traurig announced his resignation.
The firm released the following statement:
"The firm has concluded its review of the situation to determine Allan Kassenoff’s status with the firm. Our primary obligation is to maintain and protect the core values and best interests of our firm, our clients, our lawyers and our professional staff. Allan has been on a short leave of absence and has now resigned from the firm, effective immediately.
"The firm is sensitive to the needs of the three children, the primary victims of the situation, and therefore will be creating a dedicated trust fund with an independent trustee for the sole benefit of these children, to be voluntarily funded by the lawyers and staff of our firm. We wish healing and privacy to the children during this very difficult situation."
In Catherine's letter, she wrote of multiple situations in which Allan tried to have her arrested. In her Dropbox folder, she included a police report in which Allan said Catherine "was capable of killing him and (her) own children."
The New York Post reported that Allan's attorney, Gus Dimopoulous, said the court never acted unfairly.
"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," he said in his statement.
According to Catherine, she had no history of substance abuse, mental illness, or crime.
Though Catherine had progressed from extremely limited interactions with her daughters to longer ones, she wrote about feeling like a "hunted animal" because of all the times Allan tried to get her into trouble.
She described a March event in which she was watching one of their daughters skate. Allan tried to have her arrested.
Some concerned friends reached out to Catherine after they saw her Facebook post, according to the New York Post.
One friend, Elizabeth Harding Weinstein, said, "Catherine once said someone is going to have to die before they take these things seriously. Catherine was a warrior. I hope they’re paying attention now," according to the New York Post.
Catherine and Allan got married in 2006. Allan filed for divorce in 2019. Allan was allegedly verbally and emotionally abusive. Videos on TikTok showcase this alleged abuse.
Catherine wrote in her letter, "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.”
Amy Polacko has been covering Catherine's story for Ms. magazine. On June 5, she wrote, "if a superwoman like Catherine Kassenoff—who had grit, plus training as an elite legal mind—was defeated by our American family court system, what does that say for the rest of women terrorized and victimized?"
