The ex-husband of a Westchester lawyer and mother who allegedly he killed himself in an assisted suicide after their long and brutal custody battle he emailed her saying he would “never stop protecting” his three children from her just months earlier.
Allan Kassenoff, also a lawyer, sent an email to Catherine Kassenoff on March 19 saying his goal was to “destroy” her in hopes she would stop trying to protect her three girls from her, according to a copy from the email posted online by the mother. and obtained by The Post.
A few months later, Catherine, 54, died by assisted suicide in Switzerland on May 27, according to a now-deleted suicide note she posted on Facebook the same day.
In the note, he claimed that Allan was the villain.
She wrote that she had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer, but said she chose to die because of Allan’s alleged abuse and a “predatory” court system that separated her from her girls, ages 9, 12 and 13. in 2018.
In addition to her public suicide note, Catherine released a Dropbox folder containing the email, as well as thousands of court records, medical records, videos and more to prove her children were taken as a result of “unjust sentences”. disgraced custody evaluator,” a money-motivated lawyer for the children and the court favoring the “money side,” he said.
The folder link is no longer available.
Allan listed how much money he spent on the custody battle, totaling more than $1 million, over the past 11 months in the email to his ex.
He reportedly spent $3 million over the years.
“You must be very proud of yourself for decimating me and the kids financially,” she wrote. “But make no mistake, no [one] Catherine is deceived; everyone knows your goal is to destroy me and you don’t care what it means to the children.”
Allan also said he would never stop “protecting” his daughters.
“You did all of this hoping I would give up and stop trying to protect the kids from you. I won’t,” she wrote. “Even if this court awards you my last dollar, I will never stop protecting them. Until the day I die.”
Catherine’s suicide letter noted her relentlessness.
“Her father has spent years and millions of dollars, over $3 million, to cut me out of our girls’ lives… He will never give in… As long as I’m alive and want to see them, they will be damaged again and again with every attempt I make,” he wrote. “What’s the point of this? The last thing I want to do is make my own children suffer.”
Allan had also emailed that all his ex knew was “hate and revenge” against him.
“Instead of focusing on getting help, you have focused your anger on destroying me,” he stated in the email.
Videos Catherine posted online, which were later shared on TikTok, show Allan as the one who uttered the word “hate”.
“I hate you,” he shouted at Catherine in one video and called her a “big old loser” in another posted by TikToker @therobbieharvey.
The mother was denied visits with her daughters despite having no criminal record, mental health problems or substance abuse history, he claimed.
“I cannot survive this torment and the pain that comes from such prolonged separation from my children,” she wrote in her suicide note. “The judicial system did this to me… It’s a predatory system that works in the dark: through ‘gag orders’ like the one in my case, through a docket that’s not accessible to the public, through a courtroom closed courts and through ex parte ‘temporary’ orders that have been in force for years.”
None of Catherine’s friends or family have heard from her since that day.
According to the magazine Msattorney Wayne Baker, the executor of Catherine’s estate, said he is awaiting final confirmation of her death, which could take four to six weeks.
In the time before her death, the court found at least some of Catherine’s allegations about the “unfair” custody proceedings to be true.
The custody evaluator who recommended Allan get sole custody of his girls was removed from several courts after photos surfaced of the judge presiding over the custody case officiating at the evaluator’s wedding.
And the same month Allan emailed Catherine, the family’s therapist issued a report urging the court to give the mother more time with her daughters, according to a document from the missing Dropbox files.
After the apparent suicide of his ex-wife, Allan took a voluntary leave of absence from his employer, the Greenberg Traurig law firm, to focus on his family.
The company is conducting an internal investigation into the situation, it said in a statement.
Allan’s attorney, Gus Dimopoulous, denied the court acted unfairly in his client’s favor when contacted by The Post.
“At every stage of this four-year custody dispute, the court system has acted responsibly and thoroughly,” he said in a statement. “After evaluation by a neutral forensic evaluator, the court ordered an immediate order granting her father sole physical and legal custody. The court also issued an emergency order of protection against Ms. Kassenoff eliminating interactions unsupervised with the children based on what they observed when they were with their mother.”
He added that the children have been in their father’s care for three and a half years and are “safe and sound”.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free, confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can call the 24/7 suicide prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
English 
Español de Venezuela