What Will Happen to Catherine Kassenoff's Children?
(This heartbreaking story just goes on and on. Important read, as the UN starts to address this worldwide horror)
What Will Happen to Catherine Kassenoff’s Children?
7/6/2023 by Amy Polacko
As the United Nations blasts family courts, a trauma expert weighs in on their effect on children.
(Jessie Watford)
Catherine Kassenoff made it crystal clear. She resorted to an assisted suicide in Switzerland because she endured the most heart-wrenching agony a mother can face: losing her children.
“I cannot survive this torment and the grief that comes from such a prolonged separation from my children. I am a 2-time breast cancer survivor with a new dire diagnosis that makes continuing this fight impossible. I continue to be placed on supervision, with no more than a few hours a week with my girls. No overnights, no taking my children to school, no bathing them, no hosting sleepovers or birthday parties, no getting to know their friends, no vacations, no living with them. I have been thoroughly excised from their lives by the courts. And I was a great and loving mother. “
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It’s actually quite simple. Their father Allan Kassenoff, who resigned from the law firm Greenberg Traurig after a wave of protest against him following Catherine’s death, has custody. And, unless something major happens like an investigation into his fitness as a parent, it will remain that way. “The reality is in Catherine’s absence there is nothing to really address when it comes to custody,” her attorney Evan Wiederkehr said. “The divorce was not finalized so as far as the law is concerned, it never happened.” Yes, there is such a thing as grandparents’ rights in New York state but Wiederkehr is unclear if Catherine’s family will pursue that legally.
Allan Kassenoff now has custody of his and Catherine Kassenoff’s three daughters. (Jessie Watford)
Dr. Christine Cocchiola is a coercive control and protective parenting expert who, as a clinician and researcher, hears stories of women losing custody of their children every day.“Revenge. It becomes the final weapon used by people who exert power and control over others,” she said. “They are saying, ‘If I cannot control you, then I will use the systems intended to protect you, to control you.’” This type of “scorched earth” campaign that Cocchiola sees often—and that Kassenoff said happened to her—breaks victims down. It’s not uncommon for them to need to liquidate assets, to lose their jobs (due to ongoing court hearings) and to experience a decline in their health fighting for their kids. While high-conflict perpetrators are often bent on hurting their spouse, in reality, it’s also the children who suffer long lasting trauma. “When they are ripped from the care of their protective parent, they have a loss of their primary attachment. There truly is no greater loss for a child,” said Cocchiola. “The research is undeniable. The trauma is significant. Yet, the courts continue to make decisions that place our most vulnerable in harm’s way, trafficking them into the hands of the coercive controller.”
Just last month, the United Nations Human Rights Council addressed the unfair treatment of domestic abuse victims in family court. Reem Alsalem, the U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, presented the findings of her study “Custody, Violence Against Women and Violence Against Children” before the council. “Within the context of child custody cases, there exists multi-layered violence that has yet to enter the collective conscience of the international community as a human rights issue,” she started her remarks saying.
Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem gives a presentation of report on child custody and parental alienation. (UN Web TV)
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(Jessie Watford)
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Editor’s note: We have repeatedly contacted Allan Kassenoff, his attorney and his former employer for comment, as well as the New York Office of Court Administration, but they have not granted our request for a statement or interview.
https://msmagazine.com/2023/07/06/allen-catherine-kassenoff-children-custody/