When mother of three Catherine Kassenoff announced on social media in May that she planned to undergo assisted suicide in Switzerland rather than continue with a bitter divorce battle in Westchester County, many litigants who found themselves mired in what they say is a “corrupt” state court system sympathized with the former special counsel to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“It’s hell,” one mother, who has spent years battling her ex-husband in Westchester State Supreme Court, told The Post. “It’s almost as if they want you to kill yourself.”
“Everyone in Westchester is talking about Kassenoff, ” said a White Plains-based attorney. “We’re all in shock.”
The Post spoke to several defendants in custody battles playing out in the Westchester court system, which one mother, currently mired in a protracted divorce, called “corrupt.” A campaigner said the court system was used to perpetuate “abuse” by monied 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. The warring parents are supposed to choose them together.
But the parent with more money often wins out, litigants told The Post.
“These people, who are supposed to work for the best interests of children, will only speak to you if you pay them hundreds of dollars an hour,” said an entrepreneur who lost custody of his two children after he could no longer pay $350 per hour 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 their father, attorney Allan Kassenoff, be awarded sole custody.
“Because the courts of New York State are so invested in minimizing, suppressing and punishing valid claims of abuse, the courts imposed ‘supervision’ on me for saying that the girls were telling the truth about their father’s abuse,” said Catherine Kassenoff in her suicide note. “This supervision, which came at a cost to me of $2500/week at its height, was at the suggestion of a court-appointed forensic evaluator named Marc Abrams. Abrams was removed from the Panel of Forensic Custody Evaluators on August 24, 2021.”
She filed a complaint of misconduct against Abrams, which resulted in his 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. When Kassenoff called out the alleged bias, Judge Lewis Lubell recused himself from her case.
Carol Most, the attorney for Kassenoff’s children, was also dismissed from the case after Kassenoff sued her for misconduct. Last month, Kassenoff’s estranged husband resigned from the law firm Greenberg Traurig amid intense public backlash.
“The videos that have circulated on social media over the last two months were edited, taken out of context and depict events that occurred more than six years ago,” said Allan Kassenoff in an emailed statement to The Post Thursday. “They represent me at my worst, during a very toxic relationship when my partner’s mental health was an urgent matter. I am 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” result.
“Catherine’s allegations were reported to four separate judges and vetted during a two week custody trial, following which I was awarded sole legal and physical custody and she was allowed only supervised visitation,” Allan continued. “Moreover, two separate neutral, court-appointed forensic experts issued written reports to the court finding Catherine to be a danger to the children and recommending supervised access.”
The role of the evaluators is just one of many problems plaguing the system in Westchester, said one expert, who told The Post the main issue is a lack of proper training and motivation on the part of lawyers, judges and child advocates.
“The abuse of the system is particularly prominent in Westchester because money is such a motivator here,” said Monica Getz, who heads the Coalition for Family Justice in Irvington and has firsthand experience. The mother of five underwent 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 has worked for nearly 40 years to “identify problems and advocate for systemic changes” in the court system. “New York State law requires costly Supreme Court trial proceedings which especially hurt women and leave many abused children voiceless, and the protective parent powerless to protect because of diminishing funds,” according to her website.
“Attorneys that are supposed to represent the children often work representing the most aggressive parent and often the most abusive parent,” Getz said. “The person telling the truth, which in many cases is the mother, is not believed because she is not as skilled as the abusive parent in manipulation … The children are often caught in the middle.”
One father told The Post: “In Westchester, divorce is very big business. Custody is always awarded to the monied party.” He said Abrams had also been hired as a forensic custody evaluator in his ongoing divorce case.
While matrimonial lawyers working in the county didn’t entirely agree with the comment, they did point out some of the vagaries of working in a small community where lawyers and judges attend the same functions and are often close.
Faith Miller, a matrimonial attorney who often represents the rights of children in divorce cases, is married to Alan Scheinkman, who was the former administrative judge in Westchester County from 2009 through 2017. He went on to become the presiding judge of the Appellate Division in Brooklyn, appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
According to one White Plains-based matrimonial attorney who did not want to be named, there was a belief among some lawyers that, “if Faith was your adversary, the judge would bend over backward because her husband was his or her boss. It took a strong judge to rule against him.”
Kassenoff said the battle against her lawyer husband to gain custody of her three daughters was so intense that “in 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 revealed due to Swiss privacy laws.
