In July 2025, a team of US Marshals arrested 50-year-old Lipps in Tennessee at gunpoint while she was babysitting four young children. She was booked into the...

A Tennessee grandmother who spent six months in jail after facial recognition tech falsely linked her to a North Dakota bank fraud investigation now wants compensation for what happened. Angela Lipps is suing the City of Fargo and a Fargo Police Department detective for $10 million over the incident, which led to the loss of her home, car, and dog.

In July 2025, a team of US Marshals arrested 50-year-old Lipps in Tennessee at gunpoint while she was babysitting four young children. She was booked into the county jail in Tennessee as a fugitive from justice wanted in North Dakota.

  • leadore@lemmy.world
    9·
    10 hours ago

    WTF. They didn’t even use footage of the suspect to falsely ID the TN woman, they used the picture on a fake ID used by the suspect !?!?!?!! That’s so mind-bogglingly stupid. How was this charge not thrown out immediately?

    The source of the facial recognition was a fake ID used by a female suspect who was captured on surveillance footage in incidents involving multiple Fargo-area banks, according to the complaint. Lipps did not look like the suspect captured on surveillance video, according to the complaint, which noted their difference in build, facial features and tattoos. Prior to arrest, Lipps had also never been to North Dakota, according to the complaint.

    • IamSparticles@lemmy.zipEnglish
      5·
      6 hours ago

      How was this charge not thrown out immediately?

      Essentially, it was. As soon as anyone actually took a look at the evidence. The problem is that the police held her in jail all that time claiming they had a positive ID when that was not the case. There are several problems to highlight here:

      • poor police training on the tools they use
      • lack of reasonable guidelines on how those tools should be applied
      • an overburdened and slow-moving justice system that allows someone to be in jail for 6 months (or longer sometimes) before there’s any action on their case
      • leadore@lemmy.world
        5·
        5 hours ago

        Not to mention inability to afford a decent attorney, because we can be sure if she had enough money she wouldn’t have spent more than a day in jail.