A dad whose terminally ill mother gunned down his ex then killed herself in Manhattan was scolded Thursday by a judge after cutting off his daughter from his former in-laws.
Zachariah Reed fled to Chicago with the 4-year-old daughter he shared with ex Marisa Golloway, who his mother Kathleen Leigh shot dead in a July murder-suicide on the Upper East Side in a twisted plot to get her son sole custody of the kid.
Daughter Lili has been cut off from Galloway’s grandparents, Nancy and John, and her 16-month-old sister since her mother’s brutal murder, sparking a new custody fight with Galloway’s devastated parents.
“So here she just lost her mother and she was deprived from the last month of contact from her loved ones,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Katz said as she admonished Reed in court. “I don’t understand the thinking behind that.
“I don’t understand how, given the tragedy, it could possibly be in the child’s best interest to not have immediately facilitated contact with her grandparents,” Katz said. “I think that was cruel to the grandparents and not in the child’s best interest – and it was not only the grandparents, but her sister.”
Reed didn’t even bring his daughter to the Big Apple as he was forced to return in-person for the court hearing, an attorney for Galloway’s parents said.
Katz, who also presided over the original custody dispute stemming from 2021, said he hoped the parties could “do something going forward and not compound this tragedy.”
Reed, along with Galloway’s parents appeared in front of Katz with the goal of hashing out a new visitation schedule for Lili.
The Galloways’ attorney Matthew Ehrlich said before the shocking killing, Lili had a “very close” relationship with her grandparents — who she calls “Mimi and Pop” — and her little sister, Mariel.
The child loved walks on the beach, tea parties, French lessons with Mimi and gardening with Pop — who would “wait for Lili to come so they could harvest his cherry tomatoes,” Ehrlich said.
“These are not grandparents who saw them once in a blue moon,” Ehrlich said, stating that the Galloway’s saw Lili two or three times a month. “They were very involved in Lili’s life — up to July 26.
“Unfortunately, over the last 41 days, my client and Mariel have not seen Lili, not once in person,” Ehrlich said, and added they haven’t received a phone call either.
Katz asked what had happened since a conference call two weeks prior where he expressed hope the two could work out at least a simple initial visit.
The plan allegedly fell apart because Reed demanded a set of stipulations and terms prior to even making a video call, regarding language the Galloways were allowed to use to discuss the tragic situation, Ehrlich said. But when the estranged grandparents asked for more details, they got nothing from Reed.
“I am confused by how [Reed] thinks that, just mere days after the child’s mom is murdered, that it’s in the best interest of the child to take her away from everything she knows and loves,” Ehrlich said.
Katz was confused, too, and had little sympathy for Reed or his lawyer, Nicky Rooz, who repeatedly claimed that visitation would not be in Lili’s best interest since it would be disruptive to her life in Chicago.
“This is a child who is just settling into a brand new school,” Rooz attempted to say before being cut off by Katz booming over her.
“Well that was your client’s decision,” he said of Reeds relocation to Chicago, “and I think it was a bad decision.”
While Katz said he doesn’t have the authority to force Reed to live elsewhere — the previous custody agreement had a stipulation that neither parent would leave New York City until Lili was done with high school — a visitation agreement could be such a burden that it would make more sense to move back to his Upper East Side apartment instead.
“Yes, it’s going to be more logistically difficult for him to facilitate these regular visits, but that’s something he should have thought about — or could still think about — but that doesn’t mean it’s not in the child’s best interest to have frequent contact with her sister and her grandparents,” Katz said.
He even dressed-down Rooz for her submitted court documents in the now-sealed case file.
“In reading your papers, I did not get the sense you were trying to de-escalate,” Katz said. “But I’m glad that’s what you’re saying now.”
A 10-minute conference between the two attorneys did not result in a new visitation agreement, and Katz said he may issue his own temporary custody agreement if they two sides cannot reach consensus.