A woman from Tennessee was mistakenly identified as a suspect in a bank fraud case in North Dakota due to artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition technology. She was arrested at gunpoint by US marshals and detained for nearly six months before the criminal charges against her were dropped. Now, she has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city of Fargo in North Dakota and a detective seeking $10 million in damages, alleging improper investigation by the police and erroneous reliance on facial recognition technology.
Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old woman from Elizabethton, Tennessee, was taking care of her neighbor’s four children at her home in July 2025 when she was arrested by US marshals at gunpoint, being falsely identified as a fugitive from North Dakota.
Lipps was held in custody at the Carter County Jail in Tennessee for about 108 days awaiting extradition to North Dakota. She was unable to obtain bail at that time due to being considered a fugitive. On October 30, 2025, she was transported to North Dakota and faced four counts of unauthorized use of personal identification information and four counts of theft in Cass County.
A mother of three and a grandmother of five, Lipps had lived most of her life in northern Tennessee. After being taken to North Dakota, her lawyer Jay Greenwood obtained her bank statements showing her location in Tennessee at the time of the alleged bank fraud. The criminal charges against her were eventually dropped, and she was released on December 24, 2025.
The misunderstanding stemmed from a bank fraud investigation in which a female suspect was caught on surveillance camera using a fake US Army ID to withdraw funds from several banks in the Fargo area.
According to Lipps’ lawsuit, an investigator from the West Fargo Police Department used facial recognition software to search for photos related to the fake ID used by the suspect, and Lipps’ social media photos were mistakenly identified as potential leads for the investigation. Subsequently, this information was shared with the Fargo police.
Chief Dave Zibolski of the Fargo Police Department admitted in March that investigators mistakenly believed the data provided by the West Fargo Police included surveillance photos from the crime scene, when in fact, the facial recognition results pertained to the fake ID photos used by the suspect. He stated that the photo on the fake ID does not necessarily match the person using the ID.
Lipps’ lawsuit further alleges that there were significant differences between her and the female suspect in the surveillance footage in terms of physique, facial features, and tattoos, and she had never been to North Dakota before. The lawsuit claims that Detective Lucas Heck of the Fargo Police Department failed to conduct a thorough investigation or find sufficient probable cause after receiving this lead, yet requested an arrest warrant from the court.
The period of her detainment had a significant impact on Lipps. She missed family birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and lacked basic care such as medication and dentures while in custody. Upon her release, she found herself homeless and had lost her car and other personal belongings.
In her federal lawsuit, Lipps accuses the city of Fargo and Heck of violating her civil rights, wrongful arrest and false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution among other claims. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and $10 million in damages. The case was officially filed in the federal district court of North Dakota on September 15.
Another of Lipps’ attorneys, Eric Rice, told a Tennessee TV station WKRN that the $10 million his client is seeking is a significant amount but reflects the specific damages suffered by Angela.
The Fargo Police Department and city officials have declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuit. Previously, Chief Zibolski acknowledged “several errors” in the investigation and stated that they have enhanced the regulations on facial recognition technology use, and prohibited the use of facial recognition systems from other police departments.