Mom Uses Suicide to Warn Women about Family Court

Mom Uses Suicide to Warn Women about Family Court

Freed in Death from a “Nightmare Like No Other”

The Women’s Coalition — Jun 4

A New York mom resorted to ending her life last week after fighting long and hard for custody—and failing.

Catherine Kassenoff had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer and said she no longer had the endurance to continue to battle both cancer and custody. She completed an assisted suicide in Switzerland in what she described as an “idyllic setting”.

Catherine characterized her years in Family Court as a complete nightmare.

In the last four years of my life I have woken up every day to a nightmare like no other.

Last month Catherine was barred from seeing her girls at all, not even in the supervised visits she had endured for many years. She was not allowed to say goodbye to her children and tell them she loved them. That may have been the breaking point.

But she was a strong, outspoken woman and would not remain silent about the unjust treatment of herself and so many mothers like her in family courts.

NOT GOING OUT QUIETLY

Catherine was not about to go out quietly. She wanted her suicide to bring light to the Custody Crisis and make a difference for women struggling to keep and protect their children in Family Court.

Catherine wanted her story to serve as a warning to all women that they will likely face oppression and devastation if the father decides he wants custody. If she—federal prosecutor, counsel to a governor, with plenty of money, education, connections and resources (at least in the beginning)—could lose her children and everything she had, any woman could.

If this could happen to me, it could happen to any woman.

Saying she did not want “her demise to be in vain”, Catherine made a last post on Facebook just moments before her assisted suicide, exposing how her life had been completely destroyed by Family Court.

I have…endured the emotional devastation of being without my children for so long, homeless from…repeated ex parte evictions…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.

She linked a dropbox file to her post with legal documents and other evidence, including videos of her ex verbally abusing her children and her.

You will find police testimony about his abuse, medical records of his abuse, affidavits about his abuse, and more in the link.

A series of 3 Tiktok posts by @therobbieharvey have gone viral going on 30 million views! [Click on the playlist.] The third one [below], is a 7 minute update with a compilation of video clips of her ex verbally abusing and berating Catherine. It also exposes some of the complicit family court minions.

Although it feels good to expose all the immoral minions, keep in mind judges are the only ones with the power to deprive mothers of their children. They don’t really believe what evaluators, children’s attorneys, et. al. say about mothers lying, alienating, or being mentally ill; they just use their reports to hang their hat on when switching custody to the father. The buck stops with the judge(s).

It’s also not good to focus on the exes, as abusers are a dime a dozen and they cannot take children away from mothers without judicial enabling. But it is nice to know that so many people have complained to Catherine’s ex’s law firm that he has been pressured into taking a leave of absence while they supposedly investigate (as if they didn’t know).

The father has become quite the public pariah thanks to the internet and social media. Thus, in death, if not in life or Family Court, Catherine was able to hold him somewhat accountable for taking her children away and alienating them from her.

CATHERINE’S STORY

Catherine was a wonderful mother and an accomplished woman.

She was a graduate of Dartmouth and NYU and some of her jobs included: federal prosecutor, law professor, and senior counsel for a number of corporations. Her most recent job was as Special Counsel to NY Governor Kathy Hokul on the Energy & Finance Cabinet.

But none of that mattered. Catherine, an attorney herself, was never provided due process in Family Court.

Despite her stellar background, clean record, intelligence, legal knowledge, documented evidence of abuse by the father, and her children’s desire to live with her and not with him, it was he who got custody and she who was placed on supervised visits. Bogus Protective Orders against her were issued, but she was denied truly needed Protective Orders against him.

Catherine’s case followed the Custody Crisis Playbook. She was falsely accused of alienating the children and then her ex was allowed to truly alienate them from her. The children were ordered into “therapy” ostensibly to “deprogram” them from her alienation. But it was actually to brainwash them into thinking their mother was the problem—the goal being to silence them about the father’s abuse and facilitate the implementation of court orders to live with him.

All this to Accomplish the Agenda: Get the Kids under the Father’s Control.

Judge Lewis Lubell was one of four judges involved with Catherine’s case. In 2019, he gave the father sole custody and evicted her from the marital home, despite the fact she had always been the kids’ primary nurturer. He restricted her to supervised visits. Catherine eventually got him recused for having a conflict of interest with the evaluator who had recommended the custody switch.

Judge Nancy Quinn Koba was another judge who went along with the cover up of abuse and empowering of the father. She was also involved with Lizzie’s case, granting the father’s Restraining Order against her.

Judge Quinn continued to torment Catherine with infrequent, supervised contact with her children. In the end, just last month, she ordered (or allowed) no contact at all.

WHAT’S MONEY GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Much of the media and many activists are placing a gender neutral cause on the horrors inflicted on Catherine in Family Court: it must be the money…

Although it is implausible to blame lack of training or child safety laws in her case, many are placing blame on the Family Court “cottage industry”, the money being made by various court-appointees. After all, her ex spent millions and ambulance chasers made a ton in the process.

But Catherine had plenty of money before she was financially devastated via Family Court. By 2021, she had already spent $600K on the custody battle, however, she, a mere woman, was not able to keep even the supposedly presumptive joint custody—or just unsupervised visits. And in the end, she was prohibited from any contact at all.

This cannot be explained by the money hypothesis. The only plausible explanation is that the driving factor for Catherine’s—and millions of other mothers around the world—is the entrenched agenda to keep men entitled and empowered in the family, being overseen and enforced by the OBN (old boy network). [See “Down the Money Rabbit Hole” for a more in-depth discussion of this gender neutral diversion.]

UNBEARABLE PAIN

The pain Catherine endured from the loss of her children was unbearable.

I would long for the girls…I imagined who their friends were, where they went, who they spent time with, what their dreams were. I had nothing more than my own imagination to work with because for the last 3 years, I was excised from being their mother.

I could not tuck them into bed at night, take them to school, host their sleepovers, make their breakfasts, or take them on vacations. Allan wouldn’t allow any of that; the court gave him everything he wanted. I often shook from the pain of it.

Catherine was a follower of The Women’s Coalition and shared many of our posts. She recently shared Terra’s story from December: “Mom Dies Following Years of Judicial Torture: Judge Took Children, Home, Money”. She commented that Terra’s story could be hers.

Unfortunately that is what came to pass…

Catherine asked that we share her story so her life was not in vain, so please share this post and let the public know there is an epidemic of mothers losing custody!

I hope that in death I can achieve what I could not in life…I hope that the public will stand up and say enough is enough.

Rest in Peace Catherine…

Condolences to Family & Friends…

May her Children Heal, Know their Mother Fought for them & Be Treated Well…

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REMEMBERING MOTHERS

Catherine joins the long list of mothers who did not make it out of Family Court alive. Following are some of the cases The Women’s Coalition has covered over the last few years. They do not include the many cases in which the mother is murdered by her ex due to having to co-parent with him.

Mom Uses Suicide to Warn Women about Family Court Freed in Death from a “Nightmare Like No Other”THE WOMEN’S COALITION A New York mom resorted to ending her life last week after fighting long and hard for custody—and failing. Catherine joins the long list of mothers who did not make it out of Family Court alive. Following are some of the cases The Women’s Coalition has covered over the last few years. They do not include the many cases in which the mother is murdered by her ex due to having to co-parent with him. Narkis: Mom Who Said “Many Women End Up Dead” Has Died Terra: Mom Dies Following Years of Judicial Torture Lindsay: Judge Enables Father to Murder Mother & Daughter Anne-Christine: Dad Murders Mom: Gets Custody Nia: Family Court Causes Another Mother’s Death Star: Judge Denies Protective Order: Mom Stabbed to Death in Front of Son Michelle: Family Court Causes Another Mother’s Death Nashwa: Protective Mom Found Dead Day after Mother’s Day Kymberlie: Woman Commits Suicide by Train on Daughter’s 16th Birthday Nicole: Mom Murdered after Judge Orders Shared Custody Jennifer: Missing Mom’s Ex Charged with Murder: Held on $6M Bail Hayley: Mom of 4 Drops Dead in Court after Custody Ruling Marissa: Face of the Crisis Shannon: Mom Passes Away after Battling Fervently to Regain Custody Kimi: Mom with Cancer Passes Away without Seeing Children Sheila: Despondent Mum Commits Suicide after Kids Given to Father RIP MOMS REMINDER Russ and Pat’s trial begins tomorrow in Brisbane, Australia. (Actually it is Monday in Australia already.) If you missed it, their story of being prosecuted for helping hide mothers is here: “Everybody Knows”: New Book by Doctor Who’s on Trial for Hiding Kids from Rapist Fathers It would be great for as many mothers as possible to be there supporting them. It is such an outrage that they are being prosecuted. We will continue to update…