Al D'Amato, Katuria D'Amato settle matrimonial battle, spokesman says
Former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and his estranged wife, Katuria D'Amato, leave Nassau County Supreme Court Matrimonial Center in Mineola on Jan. 3, 2019. Credit: Composite: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato and Katuria D’Amato have settled their matrimonial battle and will raise their two children “cooperatively,” a spokesman for both said Thursday.
The statement didn’t specify if the couple, who married in 2004, had finalized divorce proceedings. It said only that the couple had reached “an amicable settlement as it relates to their current matrimonial matter.”
“The two parties will not comment further except to say that they are both pleased that this matter has been resolved in the best interests of all concerned,” added the statement, released by public relations representative Gary Lewi.
The settlement follows a highly-publicized fight between the couple over temporary custody of their son, now 11, and daughter, now 10, that ended last year.
In June, a judge awarded the former senator, 82, temporary custody of the couple’s children. But State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Lorintz also ruled at that time that Katuria D’Amato, 54, no longer needed supervision while parenting.
Katuria D'Amato, an attorney who represented herself after Lorintz disqualified her third lawyer in the case, said at the time of the ruling that the idea she needed to be supervised with her children "was preposterous from the outset."
Lorintz's decision followed a custody hearing that stretched for more than a year after Katuria D'Amato's 911 call in September 2017 from the couple's former Lido Beach marital home led to her involuntary hospitalization.
Days later, the judge granted Alfonse D'Amato custody of the children after the former senator questioned his estranged wife's mental stability following the 911 call about a possible home intrusion.
Police who responded to the call testified at the hearing that Katuria D'Amato was delusional during the encounter and she had claimed her estranged husband would let intruders into the home who hid behind laser beams.
Police also testified that Katuria D'Amato reported she'd hid in a closet and unsuccessfully tried to load a shotgun before calling 911.
The psychiatrist who treated Katuria D'Amato during her involuntary hospitalization testified that he believed she experienced drug-induced psychosis from too much Ritalin — prescribed for her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
But in testimony last January, Katuria D'Amato insisted she didn't say anything about seeing lasers.
The Lido Beach woman also denied ever trying to get her shotgun out, saying it was "brand-new" and in a box, with the weapon secured by a gun lock when police arrived.
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