Woman jailed for nearly 6 months after facial-recognition lead seeks $10 million

A Tennessee woman who spent nearly six months behind bars after facial-recognition technology helped wrongly identify her as a suspect in a North Dakota bank fraud case is suing the City of Fargo and a police detective for $10 million.

Angela Lipps, 50, alleges police failed to properly investigate a facial-recognition lead before obtaining a warrant that resulted in her arrest in July 2025.

The charges were eventually dropped after evidence appeared showing she was in Tennessee when the alleged crimes occurred.

Lipps has now filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Fargo and Fargo Police Detective Lucas Heck, alleging false arrest, malicious prosecution and violations of her civil rights.

How facial recognition entered the investigation

The case started after authorities investigated a series of bank fraud incidents in the Fargo area in April and May 2025.

Authorities accused a woman of using stolen identities and fraudulent identification to withdraw money from banks.

According to Lipps’ complaint, a West Fargo Police Department investigator used facial-recognition technology on an image from a fake ID used by a suspect.

The software identified Lipps’ social-media photograph as a potential lead.

But the lawsuit alleges significant differences between Lipps and the woman in bank surveillance footage, including their facial features, builds, and tattoos.

Lipps also maintains that she had never been to North Dakota before her arrest.

The complaint alleges Fargo investigators failed to adequately support the facial-recognition lead before seeking an arrest warrant.

Arrested more than 1,000 kilometres away

Lipps was arrested in Tennessee on July 14, 2025, while babysitting children.

She spent more than three months in custody in Tennessee before being extradited to North Dakota, where she faced charges including theft and unauthorised use of personal identifying information.

Her total detention lasted nearly six months.

An important complication in the timeline: court records cited in reporting on the case indicate that part of Lipps’ detention in Tennessee also involved resolving probation violations related to previous, unrelated conduct.

After she arrived in North Dakota, her lawyer produced bank records supporting her claim that she had been in Tennessee when the alleged bank fraud took place.

The Fargo detective, prosecutors and a judge subsequently agreed that the charges should be dismissed while authorities conducted further investigation.

Lipps was released around Christmas Eve 2025.

Police acknowledged errors

Fargo police have previously acknowledged problems with the investigation.

Then-police chief Dave Zibolski said earlier this year that the department had identified errors in the process that led investigators to Lipps.

West Fargo police had used facial-recognition technology to identify Lipps as a potential lead based on the photograph appearing on a fake ID.

Fargo detectives then wrongly assumed that surveillance photographs of the person committing the alleged bank fraud had also been checked through the system, Zibolski said.

Fargo police did not operate the facial-recognition system themselves.

Following the case, the department said it would no longer use information generated by West Fargo’s system and introduced additional oversight around facial-recognition leads.

She is seeking $10 million

Lipps’ lawsuit alleges that investigators treated the facial-recognition result as more conclusive than it was and failed to conduct sufficient additional investigation before obtaining the arrest warrant.

She says her months in custody caused severe personal and financial consequences, including the loss of her residence, car and other possessions.

Those claims form part of her lawsuit and have not yet been adjudicated.

Her lawyers are seeking $10 million in damages.

The City of Fargo has declined to comment on the allegations, citing the pending litigation.

Detective Heck is not accused of personally conducting the facial-recognition search. The complaint instead alleges that he relied on information generated during the wider investigation when seeking the warrant.