Lawyers Say Catherine Kassenoff's Case--and Thousands of Others--Violate U.S. Constitutional Right to
(more in the ongoing horror of this case. a lengthy, valuable read) FUCK THE FAMILY LAW COURTS
Lawyers Say Catherine Kassenoff’s Case—and Thousands of Others—Violate U.S. Constitutional Right to Due Process
7/13/2023 by Amy Polacko
Allan Kassenoff now has custody of his and Catherine Kassenoff’s three daughters. (Jessie Watford)
When attorney Harold Burke called Catherine Kassenoff the day before she died, he knew she was abroad. “I spoke to her for two hours on Friday,” Burke told me last week. “I said to her, ‘Judging from the switching tones, you are overseas. Are you in a safe place?'” not knowing Kassenoff had gone to a Swiss assisted-suicide facility. “She said, ‘Yes, I am. I am very comfortable.'” Burke was one of several lawyers on Kassenoff’s team, part of a legal battle that started in 2019 when two daughters alleged Allan Kassenoff physically abused one of them. He filed for divorce, claimed she manipulated the girls, was unstable, and obtained temporary sole custody after filing an ex parte “emergency” motion. Catherine spent four years fighting—unsuccessfully—to get them back. During her last call with Burke, she was distraught as the latest ruling terminated, yet again, all contact with her daughters. He assured her they could fight the decision “just like Sylvia did” and thought he had convinced her to hang on. He was wrong.
Catherine was out of patience—due to the setback in her custody battle and a new cancer diagnosis—and informed supporters Saturday, May 27, that she decided to take her life. Ms. has obtained the U.S. State Department’s Report of Death confirming that Kassenoff died in Liestal, Switzerland, on May 27, and her ashes are in the custody of the executor of her estate. An experienced attorney, and former special counsel to New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D), Catherine Kassenoff blamed the court system for her death, writing:
“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.”
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Sylvia Lee lost custody of her children in 2012 after her husband claimed to “fear for their safety.” In 2016, the New York Court of Appeals reversed the decision. Sadly, Lee died in 2021 from a congenital brain condition. (Courtesy)
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The American Civil Liberties Union has decided to take up this cause. A landmark June 2021 court decision (Crawford v. Ally) held that New York must provide an evidentiary hearing to anyone charged with a crime before they face an order of protection that may remove them from their home or separate them from their families. However, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) said it learned the Office of Court Administration (OCA) marked a memorandum “Confidential: Internal Use Only,” instructing judges that “courts should resist—unless absolutely necessary and appropriate—anything approaching a full testimonial hearing.” The memo goes so far as to say that the ruling does not mean witnesses and non-hearsay testimony are necessary.The NYCLU filed a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request for 10 years of OCA documents addressing claims for evidentiary hearings. Initially, the OCA planned to comply, but it has now missed the six-month deadline and instead appealed the decision. “It is critical that the influences behind this decision-making, which has enormous consequences for those at the mercy of the courts, are transparent to the public,” said Daniel Lambright, NYCLU senior staff attorney.
As for Burke and other attorneys who are outraged by Catherine’s case? “Efforts are underway to pursue appropriate recourse through the state and federal courts,” said Burke. He called for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to step in, since this injustice is widespread and “works to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all persons in the United States, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society.” Yes, some of those “vulnerable members” are women—but they are also the children who are traumatized by losing contact with a loving parent and, in some cases, forced to live with their abuser.
https://msmagazine.com/2023/07/13/catherine-kassenoff-family-court-constitution-due-process/