The sanctions stem from litigation filed by Indiana resident Yvonne L. Davis against the Marion County Superior Court Juvenile Detention Center and its chief operations officer. Davis alleges Title VII sex discrimination and First Amendment retaliation after being terminated in 2022 for alleged “untrustworthiness” and subsequently denied rehire.
When defendants filed a July 28 motion to compel discovery, Sture had just three days to respond. His July 31 brief included problematic citations that caught Judge Dinsmore’s attention during review.
During a show cause hearing, Sture attributed the faulty citations to his paralegal’s rushed drafting of the document under deadline pressure, denying any use of generative AI tools. However, Judge Dinsmore remained skeptical.
“The most logical explanation for the citation to non-existent authority is, of course, the use of generative AI to conduct legal research and/or draft the brief,” Judge Dinsmore wrote in his recommendation.
Crucially, the judge emphasized that AI usage itself wasn’t the problem. “There is nothing fundamentally improper in the use of AI tools to draft a brief,” he noted. “Rather, it is counsel’s abdication of his responsibility to ensure that the information he provided to the court was accurate that is the basis for the sanctions recommended.”
