Innocent woman jailed after being misidentified using AI facial recognition

AI error jails innocent grandmother for months in North Dakota fraud case - Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, East Grand Forks news, weather & sports $1/month for 6 months SUBSCRIBE NOW Read Today's Paper Friday, March 13 Sections $1/month for 6 months SUBSCRIBE NOW Log in Account $1/month for 6 months SUBSCRIBE NOW Sponsored By Sponsored By An organization or individual has paid for the creation of this work but did not approve or review it. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT News North Dakota AI error jails innocent grandmother for months in North Dakota fraud case Angela Lipps spent nearly six months in jail in Tennessee and North Dakota after being misidentified by Fargo police through AI facial recognition in a bank fraud investigation. Tennessee grandmother Angela Lipps spent nearly six months in jail after Fargo police misidentified her through facial recognition in a bank fraud case. Charges were dismissed when records proved she was in Tennessee, but she lost her home, car, and dog. Contributed By Matt Henson March 12, 2026 at 9:54 AM Comments Share Share this article News Reporting News Reporting Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Trust Project What is this? FARGO — A grandmother from Tennessee is working to get her life back after what she says was a case of mistaken identity that nearly cost her everything. Angela Lipps spent nearly six months in jail after Fargo police connected her to a bank fraud case in the metro. ADVERTISEMENT It's a crime she says she didn't commit. In fact, she said she's never been to North Dakota. Lipps, 50, is the mother of three grown children and has five grandchildren, spending nearly her entire life in north-central Tennessee. The extent of her travels is limited to neighboring states. She's never been on an airplane in her life. Angela Lipps speaks with WDAY News during an interview about her wrongful arrest and release in a Fargo bank fraud case. Matt Henson / WDAY That changed last summer when police flew her to North Dakota to face criminal charges after facial recognition showed she was the main suspect in what Fargo police called an organized bank fraud case. "It was so scary, I can still see it in my head, over and over again," Lipps said. It was July 14, the day a team of U.S. Marshals arrested Lipps at her home in Tennessee. She said she was taken away at gunpoint while babysitting four young children. She was booked into her county jail in Tennessee as a fugitive from justice from North Dakota. "I've never been to North Dakota, I don't know anyone from North Dakota," Lipps said. ADVERTISEMENT Lipps would sit in that Tennessee jail cell for nearly four months. As a fugitive, she was held without bail. Lipps learned, following a Fargo Police Department investigation, she had been charged with four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft in North Dakota. In Tennessee, she was given a court appointed lawyer for the extradition process. To fight the charges, she was told she would have to go to North Dakota. Through an open records request, WDAY News obtained the Fargo police file in this case. In April and May 2025, detectives were investigating several bank fraud cases. A woman is seen using a fake U.S. Army military I.D. card to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars. Surveillance video shows a woman using a fake military ID to withdraw large sums of money; Fargo police mistakenly identified her as Angela Lipps. Contributed In an effort to help identify the woman in the surveillance video, court documents show Fargo police used facial recognition software. The software identified the person as Angela Lipps. According to the court documents, the Fargo detective working the case then looked at Lipps' social media accounts and Tennessee driver's license photo. In his charging document, the detective wrote that Lipps appeared to be the suspect based on facial features, body type and hairstyle and color. Lipps told WDAY News that no one from the Fargo Police Department ever called to question her. Officers from North Dakota did not pick up Lipps from her jail cell in Tennessee until Oct. 30 — 108 days after her arrest. The next day she made her first appearance in a North Dakota courtroom to fight the charges. ADVERTISEMENT Angela Lipps booking photo while at the Cass County Jail. Contributed / Cass County Jail "If the only thing you have is facial recognition, I might want to dig a little deeper," said Jay Greenwood, the lawyer representing Lipps in North Dakota. Greenwood immediately asked Lipps for her bank records. Once they were in hand, Fargo police met with him and Lipps at the Cass County jail on Dec. 19. She had already been in jail for more than five months. It was the first time police interviewed her. Her bank records showed she was more than 1,200 miles away, at home in Tennessee at the same time police claimed she was in Fargo committing fraud. "Around the same time she's depositing Social Security checks ... she is buying cigarettes at a gas station, around the same time, she is buying a pizza, she is using a cash app to buy an Uber Eats," Greenwood said. Jay Greenwood, Angela Lipps’ North Dakota lawyer, speaks with WDAY News during an interview about proving her innocence in the Fargo bank fraud case. Matt Henson / WDAY On Christmas Eve, five days after the interview with Fargo police, the case was dismissed, and she was released from jail. But, Lipps was now stranded in Fargo. "I had my summer clothes on, no coat, it was so cold outside, snow on the ground, scared, I wanted out but I didn't know what I was going to do, how I was going to get home," Lipps said. ADVERTISEMENT Fargo police did not cover Angela's expenses to get home after her release from jail. Local defense attorneys gave her money to pay for a hotel room and food on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The day after Christmas, F5 Project founder Adam Martin drove Lipps to Chicago so she could get home to Tennessee. Fargo-based F5 Project is an organization providing services and resources to individuals struggling with incarceration, mental health and addiction. "I'm just glad it's over. I'll never go back to North Dakota," Lipps said. For more than a week, WDAY News tried to arrange an on camera interview with Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski to discuss the case. Through a spokesperson the chief declined an on-camera interview. WDAY News brought the issue up on Wednesday, March 11, at Zibolski's retirement news conference. "Why did nobody from Fargo Police ever speak with Angela Lipps for the five months she was in jail?" Zibolski was asked. "Thank you, Matt (Henson), for that question but we are not here to talk about that today," Zibolski replied. Lipps is back home in Tennessee now, but is still feeling the impact from the incident. She told WDAY News that no one from the Fargo Police Department has apologized for the incident. ADVERTISEMENT Unable to pay her bills from jail, she lost her home, her car and even her dog. Fargo police say the bank fraud case is still under investigation and no arrests have been made. Comments Share Share this article News Reporting News Reporting Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Trust Project What is this? Tags Tags CRIME FARGO POLICE DEPARTMENT DAVID ZIBOLSKI ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE By Matt Henson Matt Henson is an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer/editor for WDAY. Prior to joining WDAY in 2019, Matt was the main anchor at WDAZ in Grand Forks for four years. 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