Looks like the DA I’m going to trial with tomorrow used AI to write her MILs bc so far every case citation is FAKE. I am so excited for court in the morning 🥰
The other recent AI law post reminded me of this and I realized it hadn’t been posted here. OP is u/anarchophysicist posting in r/publicdefenders. All updates were posted to the original post and have been reorganized here in chronological order.
Editor’s note: MIL = motion in limine, a pretrial filing where an attorney asks the judge to include or exclude certain evidence in an upcoming case
edited to fix the copy-paste error, sorry!
Friday 9/19/25
Commenter: I am brimming with excitement on your behalf. Hopefully you can turn this into some kind of win for your client.
OP: Oh we are at the last day of a statutory time limit my friend. It’s going to be incredible.
Edit 2: I sent an email 5 mins before court that simply said “Regarding your filed motions, it appears none of your cited authority actually exists.” The DA then just no-showed. Someone else had to make the appearance. The DA is now ordered present at 1pm to explain herself. “Let your colleague know we can always have her brought here if she can’t get here on her own.” was the quote of the day so far. But unfortunately my client attacked a guard at the jail and was not transported so everything is a total shit show at the moment.
Edit 3: It’s so much worse than it originally seemed. Found out she’s straight up lied to the court about her communications with LEA’s regarding the case.
Edit 4: SHE CAN’T BE PRESENT AT 1PM BECAUSE SHE IS BEING SANCTIONED FOR MISREPRESENTATION IN ANOTHER MATTER AT THAT TIME. I am losing my mind. How is this real? She’s not a new attorney. Back at 2pm.
Edit 5, Final update before Monday (prob): I am in the trial court with 3 other trials and the judge is absolutely livid. The judge ordered the client released from custody for reasons too complicated to get into and the DA who filed the AI MILs tried to get the court to order me personally to transport him next week based the same case law I already told her was fake. She quoted the exact same language that didn’t exist and said “The courts have held” but never cited anything. I asked for a citation and she said she didn’t have one right now. The judge literally yelled “ENOUGH!” and ordered everyone present Monday afternoon.
She wants new briefing from me on, in her words, “What the fk is even happening here”. The DA is not permitted to amend her filed MILs but may file a supplement: “I think we’d all like to hear you argue exactly what you cited in your motions Miss Da.” The development that has kicked all this up a notch is that deputies are telling us there was no fight at the jail. No one can figure out where that came from. The DA told the sheriffs he wouldn’t need to be transported today if he wasn’t cooperative. When they woke him up for transport he was groggy and slow, so they decided that meant he was refusing to go to court.
There is at least one deputy who said he tried to tell both the DA and his boss that this was wrong and he needed to go to court but they didn’t listen. I wish I could give everyone a run down of the exact legal issues but I’m changing details to preserve some degree of anonymity for both myself and the client.
Final Update
JUDGMENT: DISMISSAL OF ALL CHARGES IN THE INTERESTS OF JUSTICE DUE TO PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT AND REFERRAL TO THE STATE BAR
The judge went through the motions in limine and each time made a finding that the DA had cited non-existent authorities and denied them, commenting about halfway through that it was starting to seem a little suspicious. The judge was also kind of grossed out by how nakedly one-sided several of the motions were, like one very bizarre request that the prosecution be allowed to make a motion for directed verdict before defense put on their case. I deliberately structured my motions so the big ones would be last.
All of her evidence was excluded, along with her witnesses, for due process violations re: notice and confrontation. The judge delivered a zinger at this point so vicious it felt like a gun went off but I can’t think of a way to share it without doxxing myself. RIGHT BEFORE we get to my big MIL about the lying and my suspicions regarding AI use, the DA asks for a recess bc she needs to speak with her supervisor.
She returns and says “In light of your rulings this morning, and the prejudice they will cause to the State’s case, we no longer feel there is a reasonable possibility of conviction – “ The judge interrupts: “Agreed. The matter is dismissed in the interests of justice for substantive due process violations arising from the misrepresentations and misconduct of the prosecution. This is based on the declaration of defense counsel filed this morning and the Court’s own observations as to the numerous illegal citations in the State’s pleadings. Transcripts are ordered and counsel for the State is referred for an order to show cause before the State Bar.”
I have been transparent about the fact I’m changing many details to preserve confidentiality but here is the core of what transpired: an attorney for the state tried to deprive someone of their most basic civil rights by fabricating statements from jail staff regarding the behavior of that client and used fake AI generated authorities in an absolutely fake AI generated pleading. After reviewing my history of communication w/ this attorney, I discovered this had been an issue for quite some time. But you will all be pleased to hear that anything in quotes is pretty much verbatim. I love this judge so much bc she does not put up with bullshit. Needless to say I am exhausted but I’ve enjoyed having you all join me on this journey. Ultimately though, I just feel kind of sick to my stomach that this happened in the first place.