On November 23, 2020, Tara Walsh sent a letter to the Chappaqua Police Department in which she formally recanted the core allegation that formed the basis of the emergency custody orders entered against Stephen Russell in Westchester Family Court. She admitted that she had lied about Stephen Russell threatening to kill her and their daughter with a firearm. This letter is now referred to as the "Lie Letter" in the Motion to Vacate because it is Tara Walsh's own written admission that her foundational allegation was false.
The emergency jurisdiction that allowed Westchester Family Court to seize custody of Evie was predicated entirely on an allegation that Stephen Russell threatened to kill Tara Walsh and Evie with a firearm. In November 2020, Tara Walsh admitted in writing that this allegation was not true. An emergency jurisdiction predicate that the alleging party admits was fabricated cannot support permanent orders.
In her letter to the Chappaqua Police Department, Tara Walsh wrote:
This statement is unambiguous. She explicitly stated that:
The "Lie Letter" is corroborated by Tara Walsh's own text message to Stephen Russell from May 17, 2018:
This earlier text message shows that Tara Walsh knew at the time the orders were entered that she had fabricated the firearm threat. Nearly two years later, she admitted this formally to police.
The alleged death threat was further contradicted by:
Every objective piece of evidence contradicted the death threat allegation from the beginning. Tara Walsh's "Lie Letter" simply made explicit what the evidence had shown all along.
Based on this false allegation, Westchester Family Court issued:
All of these orders were justified as emergency measures based on the death threat allegation. When that allegation was false, the entire jurisdictional foundation collapsed.
Under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), emergency jurisdiction is permissible only when:
UCCJEA does not contemplate using emergency jurisdiction to enter permanent, long-term custody orders. Yet the death threat—the sole basis for emergency jurisdiction—was false. This means:
Despite Tara Walsh's written recantation of the sole factual basis for the orders, no full hearing has been held to reassess custody and access. The orders remain in effect as if the allegation were still credible. According to the Motion to Vacate:
This creates a situation where:
The Motion to Vacate identifies the "Lie Letter" as one of two critical anchors:
The combination of:
...means that the entire procedural and factual basis for the Westchester orders has collapsed. The court can no longer rely on the emergency allegation or treat Tara Walsh as a credible source of information about danger.
This is Tara Walsh's own written admission to law enforcement, corroborated by her earlier text messages and contradicted by objective evidence (NYPD search, building logs, 911 records, lack of criminal charges). This is the highest level of admissible evidence against her. It directly undermines the jurisdictional basis of the orders and establishes that she knowingly made a false allegation to obtain custody of her daughter.