{"data":{"event":{"id":"b96c657e-4d4e-41f5-a411-60b664c7478a","slug":"new-mexico-chatgpt-fabricated-witnesses","title":"New Mexico Supreme Court holds a lawyer in contempt for ChatGPT-fabricated witnesses","short_summary":"In September 2026 the New Mexico Supreme Court held attorney Stephen Aarons in contempt, fined him $5,000, and referred him for discipline after a murder-appeal brief prepared with ChatGPT included wholly fabricated witnesses and false police testimony.","full_description":"Aarons told the court he fed transcripts and case materials to ChatGPT expecting a reliable summary and did not verify the brief. The court found fictitious officers and witnesses, false testimony about clothing and threats, and misrepresented authorities in a live murder appeal. This is a documented integrity failure in a criminal appellate proceeding, worse in kind than typical hallucinated citations, but still case-level rather than population harm.","ledger_type":"harm","primary_domain_id":"056250cf-05f4-4116-957c-78323ed7f8cf","event_status":"verified","event_date":"2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z","discovery_date":"2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z","first_published_date":"2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z","last_reviewed_date":"2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z","geographic_scope":"New Mexico, United States","affected_population":"Defendant-appellant Oscar Renee Sandoval, the New Mexico Supreme Court, and the criminal justice process in the appeal","base_impact_tier":2,"base_score":"3.00","attribution_multiplier":"0.3500","evidence_multiplier":"1.0000","realization_multiplier":"1.0000","durability_multiplier":"0.4500","current_event_score":"0.236300","confidence_level":"high","score_explanation":"Fabricated witness testimony in a murder appeal is significant institutional harm (tier 2). Lawyers had a duty to check (0.35). The contempt order is a primary court record (1.0). Realization is the filed brief and sanction. Durability is the record and discipline referral, not a population injury.","methodology_version_id":"d7881163-fb23-4e71-8625-bac1a8662c0f","original_methodology_version_id":"d7881163-fb23-4e71-8625-bac1a8662c0f","published_at":"2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z","created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","updated_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","flags":[],"domain_name":"Computer Science","domain_slug":"computer-science","methodology_version":"0.1"},"contributions":[{"id":"bfa501fb-73bc-48ac-b7dd-2a2a4e9ff6df","event_id":"b96c657e-4d4e-41f5-a411-60b664c7478a","model_id":"526ec3f2-2d3c-4f79-9606-a23be76b9b8c","role_description":"Generated fabricated witnesses, police testimony, and misrepresented authorities that were filed in the brief in chief.","attribution_multiplier":"0.3500","credit_share":"0.5000","contribution_score":"0.236300","attribution_rationale":"ChatGPT produced the false material; counsel filed it without verification.","attribution_confidence":"medium","first_used_date":"2026-08-01T00:00:00.000Z","model_version_if_known":null,"review_status":"approved","created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","model_slug":"chatgpt","model_name":"ChatGPT","identity_class":"named_release","is_internal":false,"family_name":"GPT","family_slug":"openai-gpt","organization_name":"OpenAI","organization_slug":"openai"}],"sources":[{"id":"93f0a31e-9086-4179-810f-bf55f65057e5","event_id":"b96c657e-4d4e-41f5-a411-60b664c7478a","url":"https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/new-mexico-chatgpt-lawyer.pdf","canonical_url":"https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/new-mexico-chatgpt-lawyer.pdf","source_type":"regulatory_record","publisher":"New Mexico Supreme Court","author":null,"publication_date":"2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z","retrieved_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","title":"New Mexico Supreme Court order holding Stephen D. Aarons in contempt","excerpt":null,"content_hash":null,"source_reliability_class":"medium","is_primary_source":true,"is_independent":true,"is_peer_reviewed":false,"archived_url":null,"created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z"},{"id":"974771c4-b30f-4261-8b47-7f48c61d68ab","event_id":"b96c657e-4d4e-41f5-a411-60b664c7478a","url":"https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/chatgpt-invented-fake-police-testimony-murder-appeal-new-mexico-high-court-says-2026-09-11/","canonical_url":"https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/chatgpt-invented-fake-police-testimony-murder-appeal-new-mexico-high-court-says-2026-09-11/","source_type":"journalism","publisher":"Reuters","author":null,"publication_date":"2026-09-11T00:00:00.000Z","retrieved_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","title":"ChatGPT invented fake police testimony in murder appeal, New Mexico high court says","excerpt":null,"content_hash":null,"source_reliability_class":"medium","is_primary_source":false,"is_independent":true,"is_peer_reviewed":false,"archived_url":null,"created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z"}],"claims":[{"id":"8bcc8bbb-ee19-454d-ae4a-1c3c52876777","event_id":"b96c657e-4d4e-41f5-a411-60b664c7478a","claim_text":"The New Mexico Supreme Court found that a ChatGPT-assisted murder-appeal brief contained false testimony from wholly fabricated witnesses and held counsel in contempt.","claim_type":"outcome","claim_status":"supported","confidence_score":null,"created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z","updated_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z"}],"revisions":[{"id":"eda0517f-dc63-4dc2-b5c4-774070411d7e","event_id":"b96c657e-4d4e-41f5-a411-60b664c7478a","model_id":null,"previous_score":"0.000000","new_score":"0.236300","previous_factors":{},"new_factors":{"evidence":1,"base_score":3,"durability":0.45,"attribution":0.35,"realization":1},"change_reason":"Imported events under methodology 0.1.","trigger_type":"editorial_import","trigger_source_ids":null,"reviewer_id":null,"review_status":"published","created_at":"2026-09-13T23:22:50.724Z"}],"secondary":[]},"methodology_version":"0.1"}