Grandmother babysits neighbor’s four young children. Then she finds herself arrested at gunpoint and extradited because of AI
She is suing for $10 million.
A grandmother in Tennessee expected it to be just another ordinary day babysitting her neighbor’s young children, but she found herself facing a months-long stint in jail after being arrested at gunpoint instead. Now, she’s filing a lawsuit after officials allegedly used artificial intelligence (AI) that led to her being wrongfully detained.
In July 2025, U.S. Marshals arrived at a home in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and arrested at gunpoint 50-year-old Angela Lipps, who at the time was looking after four young children for her neighbor, per Fox News. A complaint filed on Sept. 15, 2026, alleged that AI facial recognition identified Lipps in a bank theft investigation in North Dakota that occurred between April and May 2025, a case and state she had no connection to.
Lipps was held in county jail for 108 days before she was extradited from Tennessee to North Dakota, where she spent another two months in jail on a $100,000 bond. Lipps was charged with four counts of theft and four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information.
Officials allegedly didn’t independently verify AI match
Prosecutors ultimately dismissed Lipps’ charges in December 2025 after she submitted bank records that showed she was in Tennessee at the time of the thefts. The damage, however, was done. According to the complaint, her “residence, car, and personal property were lost” during her absence.
Lipps’ attorney, Eric Rice, said the grandmother is seeking $10 million for malicious prosecution, false arrest, and violations of her constitutional rights, per WKRN. “Obviously, it is a significant number, but it reflects the specific harm that happened to Angela. Can you imagine being taken away at gunpoint, held in detention, taken from your family?” Rice told the outlet.
The City of Fargo and the Fargo Police Department acknowledged their investigative mistake in a press conference held in March. Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said they “immediately addressed it” when the errors were noticed.
The suspect in the theft case allegedly used stolen identities and fake IDs to commit bank fraud in Fargo and West Fargo. Officials then used a photo from one of the suspect’s fake IDs and ran it through Clearview AI for facial recognition analysis, instead of reviewing surveillance footage, according to the complaint.
Clearview AI’s facial recognition is meant to provide leads. But officials allegedly regarded the match as a positive identification despite it not being independently verified, which the complaint said they failed to disclose. Lipps’ attorney criticized the negligence, describing it as a situation where officers were “not doing the legwork that is typically expected.”
West Fargo police didn’t push any charges
The West Fargo Police Department reportedly declined to make charges when they reviewed the match, as it wasn’t verified. The complaint noted that a West Fargo police captain described AI facial recognition as “close to a last-ditch effort” in investigations.
Detective Lucas Heck was named in the complaint as someone who failed to review Lipps’ travel and financial records at the time of the theft. He was also accused of overlooking physical differences between Lipps and the suspect, such as their build and that the suspect lacked a neck tattoo, which Lipps had.
American Civil Liberties Union deputy director Nate Freed-Wessler told Fox News Digital that there had been an increase in wrongful arrests due to the use of AI in law enforcement over the past five or six years. “We’ve seen cases where police intentionally avoid making any notes about their use of facial recognition technology or other AI,” Freed-Wessler said.
Mistakes using AI aren’t limited to law enforcement. In a separate incident, a lawyer was caught submitting fake testimony during a murder appeal after using ChatGPT.
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