AI error jails innocent grandmother for months in North Dakota fraud case – Grand Forks Herald

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.