Grandmother falsely accused of theft after alleged AI facial recognition match sues

The woman said she lost her residence, car and other personal property.

A Tennessee grandmother who was falsely accused of bank theft crimes in North Dakota and detained for six months is suing for $10 million, alleging in a federal lawsuit that police improperly relied on AI facial recognition technology to arrest her for crimes she did not commit.

Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old grandmother of five, was arrested in July 2025 outside her home while she was babysitting her neighbor's children, according to the complaint. She was detained for several months at a detention center in Tennessee before being brought to North Dakota to face multiple bank theft charges, according to the complaint.

Her charges were ultimately dropped, and she was released on Christmas Eve after Lipps and her attorney provided bank records showing she was in Tennessee at the time of the alleged crimes, according to the complaint.

The city of Fargo and Lucas Heck, a Fargo police detective identified in the complaint as having requested the arrest warrant for Lipps, are named as the defendants in the complaint, which said it seeks to "repair what has been broken" over her false arrest and "seeks accountability" from the Fargo Police Department.

"They knew that AI facial recognition technology should not be used as the sole basis to extradite and charge a person. Yet they ignored those issues and gave no care to the harm it would do to innocent people like Lipps," the complaint alleged. "As AI facial recognition technology becomes more accessible and widespread, Lipps hopes that her case will cause officers to use appropriate care and consider the harm their actions can have on those who are wrongly accused."

Heck isn't accused in the complaint of personally using the AI facial recognition technology.

According to the complaint, AI facial recognition software used by a West Fargo Police Department investigator identified Lipps' social media photo as a potential lead in a bank theft investigation.

Fargo Police DepartmentGoogle Maps Street ViewThe 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.

The complaint claims that after Lipps was identified as a lead, Heck did not conduct a thorough investigation or find sufficient probable cause before requesting an arrest warrant. It alleges that Lipps was falsely arrested and imprisoned and maliciously prosecuted, and that the Fargo Police Department (FPD) did not adequately train officers on the use of facial recognition technology.

"FPD was aware that the lack of supervision of an officer using facial recognition in an investigation could result in the wrongful detention and prosecution of a subject. Despite knowledge of this risk, FPD refused to supervise its officers' use of facial recognition technology in a criminal investigation," the complaint alleged.

According to the complaint, Lipps was detained for several months in Carter County, Tennessee, while alleged probation violations tied to prior, unrelated criminal conduct in Tennessee were resolved before her extradition to Cass County, North Dakota. She was then ordered held on a $100,000 bond that she was unable to pay, according to the complaint.

During her monthslong detention, Lipps "experienced traumatic conditions in the jails," the complaint alleged.

"She struggled with the fear of not knowing when she would be released or whether she would end up wrongly convicted and imprisoned for years," the complaint alleged. "She missed family birthdays. She spent her own birthday incarcerated, separated from her family. She missed holidays with her loved ones, including Thanksgiving and Christmas. While in custody, she was denied basic care, such as her medications and her dentures."

Once she was released, Lipps learned she had lost her residence, car and other personal property, according to the complaint.

"Since the incident, she lives in fear that she will be abducted again and has been left with the knowledge that even though she was innocent, she is not safe," the complaint stated.

The complaint is seeking $10 million in damages.

"Obviously, it is a significant number, but it reflects the specific harm that happened to Angela," her attorney, Eric Rice, told ABC Nashville affiliate WKRN. "Can you imagine being taken away at gunpoint, held in detention, taken from your family?"

In response to a request for comment from the city of Fargo and the Fargo Police Department, a city spokesperson said, "The City does not comment on pending litigation."

Lipps' case gained national attention following an article in the Grand Forks Herald in March. Then-Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski addressed Lipps' case later that month, telling reporters during a press briefing that the department "identified a couple of errors" in the investigation into the bank thefts.

He said that West Fargo police, who were also investigating bank theft cases appearing to involve the same suspect, had identified Lipps as a potential lead through their AI facial recognition technology based on a photo from a fake ID used by the suspect. When Fargo detectives received that information, they "assumed wrongly" that surveillance photos from the Fargo bank theft cases, not just the fake ID photo, were also included, something West Fargo police "wouldn't have done and we should have done," he said.

"As you can imagine, the photo on the fake ID that I use doesn't necessarily mean that I am the person that's in that fake ID," he said.

Zibolski said the department doesn't have its own AI facial recognition technology and would typically submit unknown persons to the North Dakota State and Local Intelligence Center. He said the use of the West Fargo AI facial recognition system would not have been allowed and has since been prohibited.

In the wake of Lipps's arrest, Zibolski said the department would also take "more steps" and "more scrutiny" to move cases forward.

"What I know right now is that the persons involved are also very upset by this because they pride themselves on their thoroughness," he said. "No one wants to see someone detained, arrested unnecessarily, right? Our goal is to get the right people in custody and work through the justice system."

ABC News has been unable to reach Heck for comment on the complaint.