The drama of Angela, the grandmother who spent 5 months in jail in the US because an AI confused her face with that of another person

The drama began in July, after the Police used a surveillance tool facial recognition with artificial intelligence to link it with crimes committed in North Dakota. She was arrested on July 14 based on a warrant issued by the Fargo Police Department.

Months before, this city located more than 1,600 kilometers from Lipps’ home in Tennessee had suffered several cases of bank fraud, a pattern also repeated in its surroundings, according to the Police.

The artificial intelligence-based facial recognition system pointed out Lipps’s face as a coincidence with that of a suspect. From there, the judicial machinery was set in motion until it reached the woman, mother of three children and grandmother of five.

The chief of the Fargo Police Department, Dave Zibolskiadmitted to the American network CNN that AI identification mechanisms were used in the process, although “an additional independent investigation was also carried out” to help identify the suspect.

In any case, his own Zibolski, in a press conference held last Tuesday, explained that “mistakes were madeHe alleged that these were related to his police department’s reliance on using information from a neighboring agency’s AI system.

“At one point, our partner agency in West Fargo acquired its own AI facial recognition system, which we were not aware of at the executive level, and would not have allowed it to be used. Since then it has been prohibited“he assured.

The police chief further stated that Fargo police will no longer “send or use information” from West Fargo’s AI system because “it is their own system. We don’t know how it works or how it is monitored.”

The mistake that triggered everything

Lipps’ arrest was due to a similarity to the person police were looking for for the aforementioned bank account fraud.

The West Fargo Police Department has informed different American media that it uses Clearview AIa startup with a database of billions of photos collected from the internet, including social networks.

According to the police themselves, this Clearview system “identified a possible suspect with similar traits to those of Angela Lipps”.

As reported by local media WDAY-TV NewsWest Fargo Police have used AI facial recognition in about 250 cases over the past two years, representing 10% of their investigations since they first adopted the technology in 2020.

Terrified, extradited and humiliated

On July 1, a North Dakota judge signed an arrest warrant for Lipps. She was finally arrested fourteen days later and spent more than three months in a Tennessee jail before being extradited, according to her lawyers.

It was not until October when Tennessee police authorities informed the Cass County Sheriff’s Office in North Dakota who had Lipps’ extradition authorization.

According to his lawyers, the judicial situation that Lipps faced was complex since She was charged with multiple charges.including aggravated robbery and unauthorized use of personal information, both crimes considered serious by the US judicial system.

It is unclear why it took so long for Tennessee authorities to notify their North Dakota counterparts of her arrest and the charges against her.

On the one hand, the defendant’s lawyers declared to CNN that “they have seen an email dated July 14, 2025 notifying several North Dakota law enforcement officials that she had been arrested in Tennessee.”

The Fargo police, for their part, have assured that they “do not have additional information” to know if it took three months to be extradited due to “lack of evidence” or because she refused to be extradited to North Dakota.

In any case, according to Lipps herself in her campaign GoFundMehis extradition to North Dakota was terrifying: “It was the first time I traveled by plane” she wrote. “I was terrified, exhausted and humiliated.”

Already in Fargo, they assigned him a lawyer who he managed to find bank records who showed that was in Tennessee at the time the North Dakota crime was committedwhich ended up being a fundamental test.

On December 12, the Prosecutor’s Office informed the Fargo Police that the defense had presented “possible exculpatory evidence“. On December 23, “they mutually agreed dismiss the charges without prejudice to allow for a more thorough investigation.”

In Christmas EveLipps was released, acquitted of the charges. However, her lawyers have regretted that the time she spent in prison, deprived of liberty, has been “devastating” for her.

“The trauma, loss of freedom and damage to reputation cannot be easily repaired,” his lawyers told the CNN.

As their lawyers have explained, they are now studying the possibility of filing a lawsuit for violation of civil rights, but they have not yet filed it.

In any case, the Fargo police chief did not respond to whether they plan to apologize to Lipps. The investigation is still ongoing, he says, and they are now working to identify other possible suspects thanks to surveillance cameras.

“We are going to have to unravel this entire vast network of people and who is involved”Zibolski explained in a press conference.