State Supreme Court Fines Attorney $5,000 Over ChatGPT-Fabricated Evidence
The New Mexico Supreme Court fined Santa Fe defense attorney Stephen Aarons $5,000 and held him in contempt on September 9, 2026, after he submitted a murder appeal brief containing fake witness testimony generated by ChatGPT.
Aarons used the software to process trial transcripts while handling the criminal appeal of Oscar Renee Sandoval, who received a life sentence last year for the murder of the mother of his children. Instead of producing a reliable summary, the tool hallucinated non-existent police testimony and fabricated witnesses, including fictional claims that the shooter wore dark pants and a white shirt.
Courts are penalizing practitioners who fail to check their filings, and this ruling highlights the legal liabilities of unverified software automation in practice.
Unverified Inputs Lead to Contempt Citation
The high court ordered Aarons to explain the fabricated material following an August 21 hearing. Aarons stated he fed computer-generated transcripts into ChatGPT expecting a “bulletproof summary,” admitting he didn’t grasp how severely the program could invent facts.
Justice C. Shannon Bacon rejected that defense during the proceeding. “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 said. “Because the problem with lawyers relying on AI hallucinations is an above-the-fold story every single day.”
The judicial panel ruled that Aarons demonstrated a lack of remorse and concern for his client. On top of the $5,000 fine and contempt finding, the justices referred him to an attorney disciplinary board for formal investigation. Sandoval’s pending appeal was removed from Aarons and reassigned on September 2 to public defender Kim Chavez Cook.
Aarons acknowledged the lapse as an honest mistake, stating he hopes the disciplinary board takes the context into account while framing the incident as a warning for professionals using unstable tools.
| Penalty / Regulatory Action | Sanction Details |
|---|---|
| Court Fine | $5,000 financial penalty |
| Contempt Order | Held in contempt of court for filing unverified fabricated brief |
| Disciplinary Action | Referred to state attorney disciplinary board for investigation |
