United States v. Michael Shane DeBaere (2)
W.D. Virginia · Jan 23, 2026
- Jurisdiction
- federal
- Court
- W.D. Virginia
- Record ID
- united-states-v-michael-shane-debaere-2-2026-01-23
- Observed outcome
- The court denied the defendant's motion to alter or amend judgment and issued a formal warning regarding the potential for future sanctions due to the submission of fabricated and misleading legal authorities.
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
Why this matter warrants attention
The court issued a formal warning to a pro se litigant regarding the inclusion of fabricated case law, non-existent quotations, and mischaracterized legal authorities in court filings. The court explicitly warned that continued submission of such misleading materials may result in sanctions, including the striking of documents or the imposition of monetary penalties.
False Quotes: Case Law | Lengthy quotation attributed to United States v. Melvin (3d Cir.) that does not appear in that opinion; court found the quoted material absent from Melvin. || Misrepresented: Case Law | Mischaracterization of United States v. Emmett (9th Cir.), including attributing analysis and a quotation that the Emmett opinion does not contain. || Fabricated: Case Law | Multiple citations on memorandum page 11 to cases that are not found (citation strings do not match any real cases or the quoted language does not appear in the cited opinions). || False Quotes: Case Law | Quotation "static rehashing of past severity" attributed to a case where the phrase does not appear and no source could be located.
This record documents a Pro Se Litigant filing issue in W.D. Virginia, with the listed outcome: Warning.
Failure modes and consequences
- Pro Se
- Fake Citations
- Fabricated Quotes
- Misrepresented Authority
- Criminal
- Trial
- AI attribution
- Unspecified
- Recorded tool
- AI (implied, unspecified)
- Known monetary consequence
- Not recorded
- Procedural posture
- Post-judgment motion to alter or amend in a criminal case, combined with requests for early termination of supervised release.
Damien Charlotin case archive
Publisher document archive. The recorded document is hosted in the upstream publisher archive.
Open underlying sourceA recorded source link is not a substitute for checking the underlying order, filing, opinion, or disciplinary record.
What this record does—and does not—establish
The court record does not name a specific tool, noting only the presence of fabricated content.
Retained unchanged after audit: the existing summary is source-specific, non-placeholder, and supported by the recorded source link. Read the underlying source before relying on it for legal advice or a filing.
Latest evidence review: Primary Document Verified (high confidence).
Controls suggested by the public record
- Verify each cited authority, quotation, and proposition against the underlying source before filing.
- Confirm that every authority actually supports the proposition for which it is offered.