What's at stake?
An outside law firm hired by the City of Fresno, Aleshire & Wynder, LLP, will have to explain in an April court hearing why it shouldn't be subject to a $10,000 fine for fake and improper case citations ending up in its December court filings. They were submitted in an ongoing eminent domain lawsuit, in which the city is trying to acquire a building belonging to A&T Ceramic Tile on McKinley Avenue. Just over two weeks ago, that same building partially went up in flames.
Aleshire & Wynder, LLP, a law firm representing the City of Fresno in an ongoing eminent domain lawsuit, faces a possible $10,000 fine from a Fresno judge who identified several fake and improper case citations in a recent court filing.
In a ruling last week, Fresno County Superior Court Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan found more than 10 issues with citations from the law firm’s December court filings in the lawsuit — four of which reference case law that “does not exist either at the citation or by its case name.”
The court filing also referenced a statute in California law, which Culver Kapetan found “does not exist.”
“Based on these observations, the court determines that legal contentions made by counsel for plaintiff were not warranted by existing law as represented through counsel’s signature and filing of the application,” Kapetan wrote in her Feb. 24 ruling.
The outside law firm, Aleshire & Wynder, LLP, will need to demonstrate at an April 14 court hearing why its “frivolous contentions” aren’t a violation of California law that should be subject to a $10,000 fine.
Although the filing with fake and improper citations listed the names of three attorneys, it was signed by one: Carrie Raven. On the law firm’s website, Raven is listed as an attorney at Aleshire & Wynder, LLP.
Fresnoland emailed Raven for comment on Thursday, but received an automated response saying she is “no longer with the Firm.”
Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz told Fresnoland that his office discussed Culver Kapetan’s Feb. 24 ruling with the outside law firm.
“The attorney who drafted and signed the motion has been removed from all work for the City,” Janz wrote in a brief statement. “The City’s outside counsel will be addressing this matter with the Court at the hearing in April at no cost to the City and at the firm’s expense.”
Janz did not say how many cases Raven was working on for the City of Fresno through the outside law firm. Additionally, Janz did not say how much in taxpayer money the city has paid Aleshire & Wynder, LLP for its legal representation in the eminent domain lawsuit since it was filed in the summer of 2024.
Fresnoland’s request for comment to Anthony Taylor and Michael Linden, the main attorneys representing the City of Fresno in the eminent domain lawsuit, went unanswered.
Neither of them responded to questions about whether the use of AI led to fake and incorrect citations in the court filings. Janz didn’t respond to the question, either.
Aleshire & Wynder, LLP employs dozens of lawyers and has seven locations across the state. It has also represented the City of Fresno in numerous civil proceedings.
Courts sanctioning attorneys with five-figure fines for fake citations has become more common since lawyers began experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence in the last few years. Some are even tracking the growing trend.
Back in September, a California appeals court issued a similar $10,000 fine to an attorney after he used ChatGPT to draft an opening brief in which 21 of 23 quotes from cases he cited were made up. According to CalMatters, at the time, it was the largest fine issued against a California attorney over fake information generated by artificial intelligence.
The California attorney in question was fined for “filing a frivolous appeal, violating court rules, citing fake cases, and wasting the court’s time and the taxpayers money,” CalMatters reported.
Right now, a bill is making its way through the California legislature, seeking to set some ground rules for how generative artificial intelligence is used by attorneys across the state.
How the eminent domain lawsuit centers a Fresno tile business
The ongoing eminent domain lawsuit was filed against A&T Ceramic Tile on McKinley Avenue in July 2024. Attorneys with Aleshire & Wynder, LLP said the owner of the central Fresno business was not cooperating with the eminent domain process, or offers that the city made to acquire the large storefront and warehouse.
The city has been using eminent domain to acquire property in the vicinity of the BNSF railroad for its Blackstone McKinley Grade Separation Project, funded through Measure C. The project aims to separate the railroad from other kinds of traffic by creating an underpass for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists on Blackstone and McKinley avenues.
In March 2025, Fresno County Superior Court ordered the transfer of ownership of A&T Ceramic Tile’s building to the City of Fresno through eminent domain, court records show.
A few months ago, attorneys for Aleshire & Wynder, LLP asked the court to give the city permission to remove all inventory inside the local business’s building and store it elsewhere. They also asked the court to require the owner of the central Fresno business to pay for the moving and storage costs.
On Dec. 31, the law firm made those requests in a formal Application for Writ of Assistance filing on behalf of the city, which also sought authorization for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office to enter the property, supervise the removal of inventory and use its law enforcement deputies as necessary.
The judge rejected the request in a blistering order that detailed nearly a dozen examples of fake or improper citations in the application and ordered the law firm to explain itself at an upcoming April hearing.
It’s unclear if or how the ruling will impact the future of the Blackstone McKinley Grade Separation Project. However, the eminent domain lawsuit is scheduled for trial on March 9.
Art Terzian, the owner of A&T Ceramic Tile, told the court in February last year that he had nowhere to go, arguing relocation would cost him between $3.4 million and $7 million. He added that the city offered him just above $2 million.
Terzian has not negotiated the offer, or put forward a counter offer, according to court filings.
Attorneys for Terzian did not respond to Fresnoland’s requests for comment.
A mysterious string of buildings on fire
The shift in focus to specific attorneys in the case came just a couple weeks after the building at the center of the eminent domain case partially went up in flames — which authorities described to The Fresno Bee as “highly suspicious.”
On Friday, Feb. 13, a fire was set off “contained to contents still inside the building,” Fresno Fire Battalion Chief Kirk Wanless told The Bee.
“It’s harder for me to see that it was an unintentional fire that got away,” Wanless told the newspaper. “That leads me to conclude that it was somewhat intentional.”
A&T Ceramic Tiles was just the latest of several buildings in recent weeks that have caught fire near the Blackstone and McKinley intersection.
The old Carl’s Jr. at that intersection, which officially closed down in December after City Hall also seized it through eminent domain, was destroyed by a Jan. 28 fire. Another nearby building, this one vacant and owned by the city, was set ablaze by a Feb. 8 fire.
Later that same week, the inventory inside A&T Ceramic Tile got lit up. With three buildings set on fire near one intersection — all in the span of about two weeks — authorities are suspecting arson.
Just two days before the Fresno tile shop went ablaze, the Terzians told ABC30 that they were worried their building would suffer the same fate as the two others put on fire.
“I’m thinking I’m going to be next,” the elder Terzian told ABC30.
He was right.
