The Gag Order: Westchester Court Orders Blogs Erased, Deactivated and Deleted on Default

The Order to Show Cause

On October 14, 2021, the court-appointed Attorney for the Child, Donna M. Genovese, Esq. of Goldschmidt & Genovese, LLP, initiated an Order to Show Cause requesting that:

• Stephen Grant Russell and/or any persons, entities and/or agents acting on his behalf be restrained from posting, uploading blogs and displaying the likeness of Evelyn Grace Walsh (photographs, animations, screen shots, drawings and the like) and disparaging Evelyn Grace Walsh's relatives in any and all public forums and/or social media platforms
• All existing postings, blogs and likenesses be erased, deactivated and deleted
• Russell and/or any persons, entities and/or agents acting on his behalf be restrained from recording any visits between Evelyn Grace Walsh and Russell and/or Linda Russell

Timeline to Default Entry

October 22, 2021: Order to Show Cause was served. Opposition papers were due on or before October 29, 2021.

November 5, 2021: In-person court appearance required. No opposition papers were filed. Russell, representing himself pro se (without counsel), did not appear in court.

The court proceeded to hear the Order to Show Cause with the following parties present:

• Attorney for Child: Donna M. Genovese, Esq., Goldschmidt & Genovese, LLP
• Petitioner: Tara Katelyn Walsh
• Petitioner's Attorney: Christopher S. Weddle, Timko & Moses, LLP
• Linda Russell (Petitioner)
• Linda Russell's Attorney: Max Di Fabio, Di Fabio & Associates, P.C.

The Honorable Michelle I. Schauer of the Family Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester, granted the order on default.

The Impact on Evidence

This gag order is the reason StevieLovesEvie.com was taken offline. The order did not address, nor was it issued in response to, any finding of falsehood in the blog's content. Rather, the order was framed around the child's likeness and alleged "disparagement" of the Walsh family members.

The timing is critical: the order came after the Walsh family depositions had been completed and their scheme had begun to unravel, and just months before the February 2022 battery trial verdict that would find Tara Walsh guilty on all counts of drugging, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional harm.

The Default Order Question

The order was characterized as entered "on default" — meaning it was issued without Russell presenting opposition or appearing in court. However, this characterization would later become central to appellate challenges to the order's validity.

Russell, who was self-represented at the time, was not provided adequate notice of the consequences of his failure to appear, nor was he informed of his right to file an emergency motion for a temporary stay pending appeal. The order's breadth — requesting complete deletion of historical blogs and photographs — raised questions about whether it violated constitutional protections on speech and press.

Appellate Review

On March 22, 2023, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York struck down the blanket deletion provision as unconstitutional, finding that the order's deletion requirement was not narrowly tailored as required for a prior restraint on speech. Most significantly, the appellate court found that the characterization of the order as "entered on default" was false — the proceedings were contested, not defaulted, and the lower court had mischaracterized its own record.