Technology

Republican DA’s Office Caught Using AI To Prosecute Massive Burglary Cases

[Wikimedia Commons/Public/Joe Gratz]

A Wisconsin court sanctioned a Republican prosecutor on Friday for failing to disclose using artificial intelligence (AI) in legal filings.

Judge David Hughes dismissed dozens of property damage and theft-related counts against two men in Kenosha County and chided Republican Kenosha District Attorney Xavier Solis’ office for the AI usage, court records show. Hughes pointed out “hallucinated and false citations” in the prosecution’s court paperwork.

The Friday ruling came in response to a motion from defense attorney Michael Cicchini, which alleged that prosecutors failed to bring sufficient evidence at a hearing about two years ago under former Democratic Kenosha County District Attorney Mike Graveley, Cicchini told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The judge tossed the cases based on those evidentiary issues, while the sanctioning over AI was a separate matter, Solis told the DCNF.

“Separately, the court addressed a citation error in a filing where AI-assisted tools were used without explicit disclosure; the issue was identified and acknowledged,” Solis told the DCNF.

“Our office takes accuracy, candor, and disclosure obligations seriously,” Solis said. “We have reviewed and reinforced our internal practices to ensure clarity and reliability in future filings, including verification of citations.”

Robert Pelegrin, the assistant district attorney assigned to the case, did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

The district attorney’s office charged Cornelius Garrett and Christain Garrett with 71 combined counts of felony burglary and other offenses in 2023, according to court records. Solis’ office may still re-file the cases.

Solis won an uncontested GOP primary election and beat Democratic challenger Carli McNeill in 2024 after campaigning on what he called “law and order” priorities. His term ends in December 2028.

The case is not the first time a lawyer has gotten in trouble for using AI in the U.S. A Kansas federal judge fined and sanctioned attorneys in a patent case on Feb. 2 for submitting AI-influenced material with “repeated instances of hallucinated case citations and quotations, and strong misstatements of authority,” court records show.