Gordon-Oliver Recuses From Case

In what can only be described as an unprecedented series of judicial recusals, three consecutive Westchester County judges withdrew from the custody case over a three-year period. This systemic failure meant that the case proceeded without a single substantive hearing on the merits, while the father was denied meaningful access to his daughter.

Judge Arlene Gordon-Oliver, one of the three judges in this sequence, was among those who eventually recused herself from the matter. By early 2020, the last of the three Westchester judges had stepped aside, leaving the case in procedural chaos.

After the mother fled San Francisco with Evie in June 2018 — following the father's emergency custody order and a restraining order against the mother — the custody matter landed in Westchester County courts. What followed was an unprecedented series of judicial recusals:

1. First judge: Recused herself early in proceedings
2. Second judge: Followed, then also recused
3. Judge Morales-Horowitz: Third judge, who also recused
4. Judge Gordon-Oliver: Reassigned after third judge's recusal, eventually recused by early 2020

Each recusal meant a fresh start: new case review, new scheduling, new delays. Meanwhile, the father's access to Evie remained severely limited. Visitation arrangements (Visits 6 through 16) were supervised, limited, and subject to constant interference and cancellations by the mother and her family.

Each time a judge recused, the clock reset. New motions had to be filed. New appearances scheduled. The system's built-in delays became a weapon, whether intentionally or not, that kept the father from his daughter. By the time a new judge in Yonkers finally took the case — Judge Michelle I. Schauer — years had been lost.

Unlike her predecessors, Judge Schauer read the briefs, admonished the mother, and immediately put an order in place for visits. She ordered three remote visits per week for the father and in-person visits for Grandma Linda. However, the gag order that followed in November 2021, and the continued obstruction by the mother's family, meant that even judicial attention could not easily undo the damage of three years of delay.

The recusals did not occur in isolation. They happened against a backdrop of:

• Six different attorneys representing the mother cycling through the case
• Five court-appointed experts being fired, delicensed, or removed
• Raymond Griffin, the fake substance abuse evaluator whose license was revoked by OASAS
• The mother's escalating series of false claims to police, courts, and child protective services
• Grumpa's (Stephen Walsh Sr.) open defiance of court orders, explicitly stating "I don't care what the court order says" to Grandma Linda

During her tenure on the case, Judge Gordon-Oliver issued several significant orders, including custody and visitation directives. Her orders reflected attempts to establish structure in the increasingly dysfunctional case. One November 2018 order required:

This order itself evidenced the court's concerns about the mother's fitness and competency as a parent — the court essentially confined her to her parents' residence for the child's safety.