Legal record and working drafts
This page distinguishes court decisions, filed documents, and Stephen Russell's unfiled working drafts. A filing records the position of the person who filed it; it is not itself a court finding.
One more person
The immediate purpose is to find one more person willing to read the record carefully and help. Start with the decisions and filed documents below, then follow their sources in the evidence catalog. A future federal filing remains a possibility; the draft is not a settled plan.
The California judgment
On February 22, 2022, a San Francisco jury found Tara Walsh liable for battery, domestic violence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The punitive-damages form asked whether the conduct involved “malice, oppression, or fraud”; the jury answered yes. The separate $50,000 punitive award was later struck. The Second Amended Judgment, dated August 11, 2022, totaled $332,080.74 including costs. The judgment was affirmed on appeal on September 15, 2023.
Judgment and associated records · The California appeal
The New York speech order and appeal
The December 3, 2021 order granting the Attorney for the Child's motion on default and the February 2, 2022 order reviewed on appeal are distinct. At the January 2022 hearing, Russell's counsel participated by making objections and cross-examining the mother.
On March 22, 2023, the Second Department held that the February order was not entered on default. It deleted the blanket direction to remove “any existing blogs and likenesses” and substituted a narrower requirement covering blogs that referenced the proceedings or disparaged the child's relatives, and the child's likenesses posted in connection with those blogs. The court upheld the remaining restrictions and affirmed the order insofar as appealed from. This decision did not vacate the custody award.
Read the official decision: Matter of Walsh v Russell, 214 A.D.3d 890 · The Remnant
Family Court order, June 15, 2026 — NYSCEF Document 164: denying recusal, the court expressly acknowledged the appellate non-default holding. It did not vacate the custody award.
The filed Article 78 petition
Filed June 13, 2026. Stephen Russell filed a verified Article 78 petition in Westchester County Supreme Court, Index No. 66205/2026, NYSCEF Document 1. The filed petition is distinct from the April 2026 working package previously linked here. Its statements and requested relief are the petitioner's; its filed status does not mean the court has granted them.
- Verified Petition — NYSCEF Document 1, 44 pages
- Notice of Petition — NYSCEF Document 2, 6 pages
- Memorandum of Law — NYSCEF Document 3, 22 pages
- Authentication Affidavit — NYSCEF Document 4, 11 pages
These are unchanged copies of the filed documents. Document 2 bears a June 13 filing stamp and a June 15 NYSCEF receipt date. Dates and scheduled appearances printed inside the originals describe those documents; they are not a current docket-status report.
Federal complaint — working draft
Unfiled; not final. Russell has developed working drafts of proposed federal civil-rights complaints. They serve as a placeholder for a filing whose final form has not been settled. They are proposed legal arguments and allegations, not a filed federal action or a commitment to proceed with litigation.
The documentary record and the possibility of a future filing are separate. No draft is presented here as perfected or ready to file.
Reading the record
The evidence catalog brings together court records, testimony, correspondence, laboratory reports, published material, and the author's own accounts. Read each item in its stated context. An exhibit label or a place in the catalog does not, by itself, establish admission at trial, authentication, or a judicial finding.
The narrative preserves the author's account alongside the documentary record. Methodology and sources explains the reading approach. Contact the publisher with a correction and its source.
Document copies
Original documents retain their wording and pagination. Extracts are identified as extracts, with the original packet and page range stated. Editorial summaries are kept separate from the documents they describe.