Tennessee Grandmother Jailed Nearly Six Months After AI Facial Recognition Match Sues Fargo for $10M

A Tennessee grandmother who spent nearly six months in jail after an AI facial recognition search linked her to bank thefts in North Dakota, a state she says she had never visited, is suing the City of Fargo and a police detective for $10 million.

Angela Robin Lipps, 50, filed the federal civil rights lawsuit September 15 in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota against Fargo and Detective Lucas Heck. She alleges investigators relied on the facial recognition result to pursue her arrest despite evidence that she was in Tennessee when the crimes occurred.

U.S. Marshals arrested Lipps in July 2025 while she was babysitting her neighbor’s children in Elizabethton, Tennessee. She was later transported to North Dakota, where she faced four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft.

The charges were dismissed without prejudice in December. Lipps was released on Christmas Eve after her defense produced bank records showing she was in Tennessee when the Fargo area thefts took place.

Police in Fargo and neighboring West Fargo had been investigating a series of incidents involving a woman who allegedly used stolen identities and false identification to withdraw money from banks. During the investigation, West Fargo police ran a photograph from a fake ID through Clearview AI facial recognition software.

The search returned a social media photograph of Lipps as a possible match. West Fargo shared the information with Fargo investigators, and Lipps alleges Heck relied on the result while pursuing the arrest warrant. The complaint does not accuse Heck of personally conducting the facial recognition search.

Surveillance footage from the banks showed a woman whom Lipps says differed from her in build, facial features, and tattoos. Her lawsuit also alleges investigators had evidence placing her more than 1,000 miles away when the crimes occurred.

Lipps claims investigators treated the facial recognition lead as sufficient identification without enough independent evidence connecting her to the bank transactions. Her Fourth Amendment claim alleges Heck lacked probable cause to have her arrested, while claims against Fargo challenge the city’s training and supervision involving facial recognition technology.

Fargo’s then-police chief, Dave Zibolski, later acknowledged investigative errors in the case.

During a March press conference, Zibolski said Fargo detectives wrongly assumed West Fargo had submitted surveillance photographs of the woman inside the banks for facial recognition analysis along with the photograph from the fake ID.

“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,” Zibolski said.

West Fargo Police Chief Pete Nielsen disputed part of Fargo’s account. Nielsen said his department did submit surveillance photographs to the North Dakota State and Local Intelligence Center and that the analysis also produced Lipps as a possible identification. West Fargo never sought charges against her, saying investigators lacked enough evidence to charge any person of interest in its case.

Zibolski said Fargo had identified “a couple of errors” in its investigation and issued new restrictions governing facial recognition searches. The directive required supervisory approval, limited searches to state or federal intelligence centers and barred investigators from relying on another local police department’s facial recognition system.

Lipps alleges Fargo lacked adequate policies, training and supervision governing the technology when investigators pursued her. Her lawsuit brings claims alleging unlawful seizure and arrest, due process violations, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution and civil rights violations tied to the city’s policies and training.

The months in custody cost Lipps time with her family as well as her home and property, according to the complaint. She says she missed family birthdays, Thanksgiving and most of Christmas, went without medications and her dentures while detained, and lost her residence, vehicle and other belongings.

Lipps also alleges she continues to suffer anxiety and fear following the arrest.

She is seeking $10 million in damages, punitive damages against Heck and attorneys’ fees, and has requested a jury trial.