{
  "meta": {
    "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T16:47:39.217Z",
    "formatVersion": 2,
    "selection": {
      "q": "own-use",
      "system": "",
      "harm": "",
      "context": "",
      "country": "",
      "role": "",
      "relation": "",
      "evidence": "",
      "year": "2025",
      "response": "",
      "severity": "",
      "verification": "",
      "view": "incidents",
      "sort": "added"
    },
    "totalIncidents": 1,
    "coverage": {
      "cases": 1,
      "countries": 1,
      "languages": 1,
      "unknownLocation": 0,
      "locationPending": 0,
      "unknownLanguage": 0,
      "unknownDate": 0,
      "lawsuits": 0,
      "regulatory": 1,
      "minors": 0,
      "coreRelations": 1,
      "contextualRelations": 0,
      "mixedRelations": 0,
      "unknownRelations": 0,
      "relationPending": 0,
      "relationUnknown": 0
    },
    "countingNote": "Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.",
    "affectedCountNote": "Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.",
    "source": "NOPE Incident Tracker",
    "url": "https://nope.net/incidents",
    "license": "CC BY 4.0"
  },
  "incidents": [
    {
      "id": "2026-aarons-chatgpt-fabricated-testimony-sanction",
      "caseFacts": {
        "claims": [
          {
            "id": "c1a",
            "status": "corroborated",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "Order passages quoted by Ars: contempt, $5,000 to the Client Protection Fund in 30 days, referral.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              },
              {
                "locator": "Reuters wire: 'on Sept 9' — fine, contempt, referral, and the Sandoval caption.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s2"
              },
              {
                "locator": "ABA Journal, 24 Aug: the $5,000 contempt anticipated from the 21 Aug show-cause hearing (pre-order; advance reporting, context only).",
                "relation": "context",
                "source_id": "s3"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "By written order of 9 September 2026, the New Mexico Supreme Court held Stephen Aarons in direct contempt, fined him $5,000 payable to the State Bar Client Protection Fund within 30 days, and referred him to the disciplinary board.",
            "causal_attribution": "The contempt, fine and referral are quoted by Ars Technica and confirmed by the Reuters wire; the ABA Journal's hearing-day account anticipated but could not confirm the later written order. The order PDF itself was not retrieved in this review."
          },
          {
            "id": "c1b",
            "status": "reported",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "Ars: removal, bar pending referral, briefs struck, reassignment (Kim Chavez Cook appointed 2 Sep).",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "The order also removed Aarons from the case, barred him from appearing before the court pending the disciplinary-board referral, struck the filed briefs and reassigned the appeal to the public defender (Kim Chavez Cook, appointed 2 September 2026).",
            "causal_attribution": "Single-chain detail from Ars Technica's account of the order; the Reuters wire does not carry these elements."
          },
          {
            "id": "c2",
            "status": "corroborated",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "Ars passages: Rev.com transcript plus record into ChatGPT (o3); the named fabricated witnesses and false attributions; the admission of non-verification.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              },
              {
                "locator": "ABA Journal: 'admits stupidity over AI errors' at the show-cause hearing.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s3"
              },
              {
                "locator": "Reuters headline account: 'ChatGPT invented fake police testimony in murder appeal, New Mexico high court says'.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s2"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "Aarons used ChatGPT (OpenAI o3) on a Rev.com transcript and the case record to draft the brief, which contained fabricated witnesses and testimony — officers 'Michelle Amarillo' and 'Sanchez', Manal Al-Jibury, Teresa Marquez, and false testimony attributed to Danny and Linda Stanton and Mariah Chavez — and misdescribed real precedents; he admitted at the hearing that he had not verified the output.",
            "causal_attribution": "The fabrication and the admission are established by the attorney's own statements at the hearing and the court's findings as reported; no source reports a denial."
          },
          {
            "id": "c3",
            "status": "reported",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "Ars: substitution of the public defender (Kim Chavez Cook, appointed 2 Sep); the court's remark about the client.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "The client, Oscar Renee Sandoval, suffers a delayed appeal: the briefs were struck, Aarons was removed, and the public defender was substituted (appointed 2 September 2026); the court told Aarons 'your client is the one suffering'.",
            "causal_attribution": "Single-chain detail from Ars Technica's account of the order; the delay's length is not stated."
          },
          {
            "id": "c4",
            "status": "reported",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "Reuters wire via Straits Times: Sandoval caption, life sentence February 2025, Doña Ana County.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s2"
              },
              {
                "locator": "Ars: brief filed ~Aug 2025; State's motion to strike weeks later.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "The underlying case is the murder appeal of Oscar Renee Sandoval, sentenced to life in February 2025 in Doña Ana County for killing his partner Shiereen Al-Jibury; the brief was filed around August 2025 and the State moved to strike weeks later.",
            "causal_attribution": "Background context, attributed to the wire and Ars; the docket number was not confirmed in this review."
          }
        ],
        "effects": [
          {
            "label": "attorney sanctioned for ChatGPT-fabricated testimony; client's appeal delayed",
            "claim_id": "c1a",
            "direction": "negative"
          }
        ],
        "sources": [
          {
            "id": "s1",
            "url": "https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/chatgpt-using-lawyer-punished-for-citing-fake-testimony-from-made-up-witnesses/",
            "kind": "news_report",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (11 Sep 2026, Brodkin). Quotes the 9 September order and the 21 August hearing; names the fabricated witnesses.",
            "independence_group": "ars"
          },
          {
            "id": "s2",
            "url": "https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/chatgpt-invented-fake-police-testimony-in-murder-appeal-new-mexico-high-court-says",
            "kind": "wire_report",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (11 Sep 2026); Straits Times carrying the Reuters wire.",
            "independence_group": "reuters"
          },
          {
            "id": "s3",
            "url": "https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/criminal-defense-attorney-admits-stupidity-over-ai-errors-but-still-receives-sharp-rebuke-from-his-states-high-court",
            "kind": "trade_press",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (24 Aug 2026). Post-hearing report citing the Santa Fe New Mexican; the fine and contempt were anticipated from the hearing, not yet the written order.",
            "independence_group": "aba-journal"
          }
        ],
        "version": 1,
        "ai_roles": [
          "own_use"
        ],
        "contexts": [
          "work",
          "justice"
        ],
        "unknowns": [
          "The 9 September 2026 order PDF was not directly inspected (nmcourts.gov search empty; form-based case lookup); the claims about it rest on two chains quoting it.",
          "The underlying docket number is unconfirmed.",
          "The disciplinary-board process and its outcome are pending.",
          "The full set of fabricated or misdescribed citations beyond the named examples is not reported.",
          "The ChatGPT product tier and whether the firm had verification policies are not reported."
        ],
        "geography": {
          "basis": "Events: Santa Fe, New Mexico practice and the Doña Ana County murder case. Affected persons: the attorney and his client, both in New Mexico. Court: New Mexico Supreme Court.",
          "court_countries": [
            "US"
          ],
          "event_countries": [
            "US"
          ],
          "affected_person_countries": [
            "US"
          ]
        },
        "publication": {
          "basis": "Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an own-use, work-context adverse consequence with a dated, quantified sanction and an admitted, judicially found AI link. This applies the charter's individual-review rule to the AI-sanction class; the retired ordinary_task_failure gate and a class-level ruling are not required. Aarons is a public officer of the court sanctioned by a public order and is named; his client's name appears in the public caption of the appeal. In a 2026-09-15 second pass the original compound first claim was split: the corroborated contempt/fine/referral stand as c1a, and the Ars-only order elements (removal, bar, struck briefs, reassignment) stand as reported c1b. person_relations recorded in the same pass.",
          "reviewed_on": "2026-09-15"
        },
        "ai_involvement": {
          "basis": "The AI link is admitted and judicially found: Aarons fed a Rev.com transcript and the record into ChatGPT (OpenAI o3), and the court's order addresses the fabricated content in the filed brief; he admitted at the show-cause hearing that he had not verified the output.",
          "status": "supported"
        },
        "person_relations": [
          "communicated_with"
        ]
      },
      "name": "New Mexico Supreme Court fines attorney Stephen Aarons $5,000 and removes him from a murder appeal over ChatGPT-fabricated testimony",
      "summary": "Santa Fe defense attorney Stephen Aarons used ChatGPT (OpenAI's o3) on a Rev.com transcript and the record to draft briefing in the murder appeal of Oscar Renee Sandoval; the brief contained fabricated witnesses and testimony (including police officers 'Michelle Amarillo' and 'Sanchez' and invented testimony attributed to real people) and misdescribed real precedents. After a 21 August 2026 show-cause hearing at which Aarons admitted he had not verified the output, the New Mexico Supreme Court's written order of 9 September 2026 held him in direct contempt, fined him $5,000 payable to the State Bar Client Protection Fund within 30 days, removed him from the case, barred him from appearing before the court pending a disciplinary-board referral, struck the filed briefs and reassigned the appeal to the public defender.",
      "incidentDate": "2025-08-01",
      "incidentEndDate": "2026-09-09",
      "incidentKind": "bounded_series",
      "incidentDatePrecision": "range",
      "exposurePattern": "single_interaction",
      "reportedDate": "2026-08-24",
      "aiSystem": "ChatGPT (OpenAI o3)",
      "aiCompany": "OpenAI",
      "severity": "medium",
      "verificationStatus": "credible",
      "harmCategories": [],
      "harmOutcomes": [
        "professional_harm",
        "legal_harm",
        "financial_loss"
      ],
      "harmOutcomeSummary": "A dated, quantified professional sanction for the attorney who relied on ChatGPT's output: $5,000 fine, direct-contempt finding, removal from the case, a bar on appearing before the court pending a disciplinary-board referral, and struck briefs; his client's appeal is delayed as a result.",
      "frameworkFacets": [],
      "causationStatus": "established",
      "participantUsersAffectedMin": 1,
      "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 1,
      "affectedCountStatus": "exact",
      "affectedCountEvidence": "Two documented harmed people. The user: Aarons, sanctioned (court order reported by Ars Technica and Reuters). Another person's use consequence: his client Sandoval, whose appeal is delayed by the struck briefs and the substitution of counsel (Ars quotes the court's 'your client is the one suffering'). No further harmed persons are reported; the victim's family is not counted (no harm to them is reported).",
      "victimAgeRange": "adult",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "platformType": "assistant",
      "outcomeType": "regulatory_action",
      "outcomeStatus": "resolved",
      "primarySourceUrl": "https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/chatgpt-using-lawyer-punished-for-citing-fake-testimony-from-made-up-witnesses/",
      "primarySourceLabel": "Ars Technica (11 Sep 2026) — quotes the 9 Sep order and the 21 Aug show-cause hearing",
      "firstPublishedAt": "2026-09-15T06:16:05.506355+00:00",
      "scopeVersion": "facts-v3",
      "tags": [
        "work",
        "justice",
        "legal-profession",
        "sanction",
        "fabricated-citations",
        "chatgpt",
        "own-use",
        "new-mexico"
      ]
    }
  ]
}