When ChatGPT Backfires: The Fire Marshal, The AI, and the Rush to Judgment

A Fire Marshal used ChatGPT to prepare for his testimony in a quadruple murder trial. He fed his report into the AI and asked it to generate questions a defense attorney might ask. Then he accidentally gave that AI document to the prosecutor. And today, the defense caught him contradicting his own AI-generated answers on the stand.

That's the headline. That's what will get clicks and shares and comments about AI in the courtroom. But that's not the real story.

The real story is what the defense exposed underneath all of that: an investigation that decided Paul Caneiro was guilty within hours of the fire at his home, then spent seven years building a case to justify that conclusion.

The Body Camera Doesn't Lie

Ocean Township Fire Marshal Craig Flanigan arrived at Paul Caneiro's home around 5:30 AM on November 20, 2018. A fire had broken out. Paul, his wife Susan, and their two daughters had escaped. Flanigan was there to conduct a preliminary investigation.

On the witness stand today, Flanigan insisted he was "just collecting data." He claimed he never suspected Paul of anything. He said he wasn't investigating an incendiary fire. He was simply gathering information before handing things off to the county fire marshal.

Then defense attorney Monika Mastellone pulled out a transcript from an officer's body camera.

Those are Flanigan's words. Captured on camera. While he was still at the scene. Before any forensic analysis. Before any investigation. Before any evidence led anywhere.

"The father."

Not "a suspect." Not "someone." The father. Paul Caneiro.

When Mastellone confronted him with this, Flanigan said he didn't remember saying it. He couldn't explain why he would have asked that question. He insisted he wasn't treating Paul as suspicious.

His own words, recorded on video, told a different story.

The Investigation That Wasn't

Here's what Fire Marshal Flanigan did NOT do during his "preliminary investigation":

He did not physically examine Paul's hands when told Paul might have a burn injury. He asked Paul about it. Paul said he hit his hand on the door, not burned it. Flanigan took his word for it. Never looked. This from a trained EMT since 1997.

He did not ask what medication Paul took when Paul mentioned waking up at 11 PM to take medicine. Could have been anything. Could have been relevant. Flanigan never followed up.

He did not determine whether the fire damage near the garage was from that day or from years earlier. He admitted on the stand he had "no idea" if that burn pattern was fresh or old.

He did not verify whether the gas can by the garage belonged to the house. Paul told him he owned five or six gas cans kept in the shed. Flanigan never showed him the gas can to confirm if it was his.

But he did photograph that gas can. Four times. From multiple angles. Someone even moved it from outside to inside the garage between photos. Flanigan can't remember if he moved it or someone else did.

He photographed potential evidence of arson. He asked leading questions about "the father" and the gas can. But he claims he wasn't investigating a suspicious fire.

The Third Brother

This matters because of what the defense is arguing in this case.

Paul Caneiro is accused of killing his brother Keith, sister-in-law Jennifer, and their two children Jesse and Sophia. The prosecution says he did it over money. They say he set the fire at his own home as a ruse to divert suspicion.

But there's a third brother. Corey Caneiro.

The defense has argued from the beginning that investigators locked onto Paul within hours and never seriously looked at anyone else. They put Paul in handcuffs within 12 hours of the fire. They built their case from there.

What about Corey? The brother who, according to a civil lawsuit filed by Jennifer's father, took "secretive and unilateral control" of Keith's life insurance proceeds after Paul was arrested? The brother who allegedly used that money to buy a $1.8 million home in Fair Haven?

The investigation decided early. The investigation decided fast. And today we saw evidence of exactly how early and how fast.

"Who's running around with the gas can, the father?"

That question was asked while the scene was still active. Before the county fire marshal arrived. Before forensics. Before any real investigation began.

The ChatGPT Problem

Now, about that AI.

Flanigan admitted he'd never testified in a trial before. He was nervous. He didn't know what to expect. So he did what a lot of people do in 2026: he asked ChatGPT for help.

He uploaded his report and asked the AI to generate questions a defense attorney might ask. He wanted to prepare. He wanted to anticipate what was coming.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that. Witnesses prepare. Attorneys prepare witnesses. Using AI as a preparation tool isn't automatically problematic.

The problem is what the AI generated and what Flanigan did with it.

The AI document said Paul gave "inconsistent statements" and had "an unexplained burn on his hand." But on the stand, Flanigan testified that Paul did NOT give inconsistent statements and that he never actually verified whether there was a burn.

When Mastellone pressed him on this, things got messy. Flanigan tried to distance himself from the AI document. The judge eventually ruled it irrelevant because "it came from a computer" and wasn't Flanigan's own words.

But here's the thing: Flanigan signed that document. He gave it to the prosecutor. He was using it to prepare his testimony. And it contained characterizations of Paul that Flanigan himself contradicted under oath.

The AI didn't make Flanigan a bad witness. The AI revealed that Flanigan's recollection of events doesn't match the narrative that's been built around this case.

What the Jury Saw

Today the jury saw a Fire Marshal who:

1. Asked about "the father" and a gas can before any evidence pointed anywhere

2. Failed to verify basic facts (the burn, the medication, the gas can ownership)

3. Used AI to prepare his testimony and accidentally revealed inconsistencies

4. Claimed he was "just collecting data" while his own words on body camera suggest otherwise

5. Called the mark on a car a "smudge" on the stand but wrote "burn mark" in his report seven years ago

This is one witness. One fire marshal. One small piece of what will be months of testimony.

But it's a window into how this investigation was conducted. It's a window into how quickly conclusions were reached. It's a window into whether the evidence led investigators to Paul Caneiro, or whether investigators decided on Paul Caneiro and then gathered evidence to support that conclusion.

▶️ WATCH THE FULL TESTIMONY Fire Marshal's ChatGPT Prep Backfires When Defense Catches Him Lying on the Stand

The Question That Matters

Paul Caneiro is presumed innocent. He has been for seven years. He will be until a jury says otherwise.

The question this trial must answer isn't just whether Paul did it. The question is whether the state can prove he did it beyond a reasonable doubt.

And part of that question is whether the investigation that built this case was conducted fairly, thoroughly, and without tunnel vision.

Today, the defense put a crack in that foundation.

"Who's running around with the gas can, the father?"

That's not the question of an investigator following the evidence. That's the question of someone who already has an answer and is looking for confirmation.

My father spent his career fighting against exactly this kind of investigation. The kind where they decide first and prove later. The kind where the presumption of innocence is just words on paper while the real presumption, the working presumption, is guilt.

We're only on Day 4. There's a long way to go. But what happened today matters. It matters for Paul Caneiro. It matters for the four people who died. It matters for everyone who believes that how we reach a verdict is just as important as what that verdict is.

Justice is a process. Today we watched that process expose something important.

I'll be watching tomorrow. I hope you will too.