Incident Tracker / United States (state)
State v. Presti, No. CAAP-24-0000826 (Haw. Ct. App.)
·Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals·US-STATEWarning
On a Hawaii criminal appeal, self-represented appellant Cody Presti filed an opening brief citing 95 cases, 11 of which the court could not locate; six citations pointed to unrelated decisions. The Intermediate Court of Appeals treated arguments supported by nonexistent authority as waived, affirmed the conviction and warned that similar filings can trigger sanctions.
- Court
- Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals
- Date
- 2026-08-31
- Who used the AI
- Litigant in person
- AI tool
- Not identified in the record
- Conduct
- Self-represented criminal appellant Cody Presti relied on 95 cases in his opening brief. The court could not locate 11 of them, six citations pointed to unrelated decisions, and the court treated arguments supported by nonexistent authority as waived while declining sanctions on this record.
- Outcome
- Warning
- Penalty
- No monetary penalty recorded
- Regulatory outcome
- No separate regulatory disposition recorded
- Status
- Verified against listed sources
- Last checked
- 2026-09-04
What was fabricated or misused
- State V Johnson — cited at page 15 of the Opening Brief; insufficient indicia for reliable identification
- Wilson V State (Ala.) — cited on pages 26-27 of the Opening Brief; insufficient indicia for reliable identification
- State V. Ah Mook Sang — cited on page 24 of the Opening Brief; Westlaw returned zero cases in any jurisdiction
- Stroud V people (Colo.) — cited on page 26 of the Opening Brief; Westlaw returned zero appellate opinions from Colorado
- Huihui (2024) / State V.Huihui (2024) — cited on page 33 of the Opening Brief; no matching 2024 Hawaiʻi case located
- State V. Alves, 45. Haw.296 — citation led to unrelated State v. Pokini, 45 Haw. 295, 367 P.2d 499 (1961)
- State v. Bonds, 592 N.W.2d 262 (Minn. 1999) — citation led to unrelated Jackson v. DeWitt, 592 N.W.2d 262 (Wis. Ct. App. 1999)
- State v. Pune, 94 Hawaiʻi 200 (2000) — citation led to a table of unreported opinions that did not include State v. Pune
- State v. Eichman, 74 Wash. App. 479, 874 P.2d 646 (1994) — citation led to unrelated cases
- State v. Washington, 125 Or. App. 406, 865 P.2d 474 (1993) — citation led to unrelated State v. Nilsen, 865 P.2d 474 (Or. Ct. App. 1993)
- People v. Babich, 192 Cal. App. 4th 1423 (2011) — citation led to unrelated County of Los Angeles v. Los Angeles County Employee Relations Commission
What the court said
“The remaining eleven cases either do not exist or lacked sufficient indicia for this court to locate the authority.”
“In these instances, the relied upon authority simply does not exist.”
“We pause to note that Presti's Opening Brief is just the next example of the alarming rise of citations to fake cases by attorneys and self-represented litigants in this jurisdiction and nationally.”
“But that right does not authorize a defendant to cite to nonexistent authority that cannot aid their ability to present a "complete defense."”
Timeline
- Presti elected to proceed self-represented in circuit court.
- Circuit Court entered judgment of conviction and sentence on Count 2.
- Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed and addressed the non-existent authorities.
Why this case matters
Presti adds a criminal-appellant record to a pattern mostly built from civil sanctions. The Hawaii court identified extensive fake or unusable authority but declined to import civil Rule 11 into a direct criminal appeal by a self-represented defendant. That limits the sanction response while preserving the verification norm: the court treated arguments backed by nonexistent authority as waived and affirmed the conviction. Compared with Keaau Development and Bryan, the same state's civil and family cases, the constitutional setting changed the remedy.
Practice note
A self-represented criminal appellant should use citations that uniquely identify a real case: full case name, reporter, page, court, and year. Before filing, search the official reporter, Westlaw/Lexis if available, or the court website, then read the passage relied on. If the case cannot be found or names a different decision, do not cite it.
Primary sources for this incident
Related regulation records for this incident
No related regulation record has been linked to this incident yet.
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Cite this record
SafeLegalAI Global Legal AI Incident Tracker, “State v. Presti, No. CAAP-24-0000826 (Haw. Ct. App.)”, safelegalai.com/tracker/state-v-presti (accessed 2026-10-07). Data: CC BY 4.0.