Crime · updated 39m ago · 2 min read
New Mexico Supreme Court Fines Stephen Aarons $5,000 for ChatGPT-Fabricated Witnesses in Sandoval Appeal
New Mexico Supreme Court fined attorney Stephen Aarons $5,000 for ChatGPT-fabricated witnesses. Court held Aarons in contempt for failing to verify AI-generated court filings.
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8 of 10 outlets skipped it: the filing included fictional shooter clothing details.
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Fake testimony in appeal
The New Mexico Supreme Court fined defense attorney Stephen Aarons $5,000 and held him in contempt after his appellate brief in a murder case included made-up police testimony and witnesses fabricated by OpenAI's ChatGPT.
“contained false testimony from wholly fabricated witnesses”
The court said the filing “contained false testimony from wholly fabricated witnesses,” and it also found Aarons “demonstrated a lack of remorse and a lack of concern for his client.”
Aarons, a private attorney based in Santa Fe, said he used ChatGPT to summarize the trial proceedings when he agreed to take up Oscar Renee Sandoval’s appeal last year, and he told Reuters he did not understand the degree to which AI could “hallucinate” facts.
The appeal is still pending and was assigned on September 2 to Kim Chavez Cook, a New Mexico public defender, while the district attorney’s office for Doña Ana County declined to comment.
Bench questions and lawyer response
At an August 21 hearing, Justice C. Shannon Bacon pressed Aarons on whether he was aware of the risks of AI-generated errors, asking, “Counsel, do you watch the news? Do you listen to the radio? Do you read anything about what's going on in the world?”
Bacon added that the problem was “an above-the-fold story every single day,” as the court questioned why Aarons failed to verify what ChatGPT produced before filing it.
In a statement to Reuters, Aarons said, “I am remorseful but hopeful that the disciplinary board takes into account it was an honest mistake,” and he described the episode as “a lesson learned for all professionals who rely upon this powerful but sometimes unstable technology.”
The state supreme court also ordered Aarons to explain how fabricated material that it said appeared to include “fictional statements that the shooter was wearing dark pants and a white shirt” ended up in his primary brief.
Disciplinary referral and case impact
The New Mexico Supreme Court said it would refer Aarons to an attorney disciplinary board for investigation after finding he failed to verify the accuracy of the court filing.
“will refer him to an attorney disciplinary board for investigation”
The court’s sanction was described by Reuters as the latest in a growing number of cases where state and federal judges have disciplined lawyers for submitting court documents generated by AI tools without adequately vetting them.
Reuters reported that Aarons’ filing appeared to have gone further than prior AI mistakes because it contained fabricated witness testimony in a criminal appeal involving Oscar Renee Sandoval, who pleaded not guilty to the murder of the mother of his children before being convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
With Cook assigned to the appeal on September 2 and both Cook and the Doña Ana County district attorney’s office declining to comment, the next step in the case remains tied to the court’s handling of the appeal and the disciplinary process.