Tennessee Woman Jailed Six Months After AI Misidentification Sues Fargo for $10m

A Tennessee woman who was wrongly charged with bank theft in North Dakota and spent six months behind bars has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $10m in damages, claiming Fargo police leaned on an AI facial recognition system to accuse her.

Angela Lipps, 50, was arrested at gunpoint by US marshals at her Tennessee home in July 2025 while she was babysitting her neighbor's four children. The mother of three and grandmother of five was held for nearly four months without bail awaiting extradition, then spent about two more months in North Dakota custody.

According to the complaint, a West Fargo police investigator ran AI facial recognition software that flagged Lipps's social media photo as a possible lead. The suit says the technology was based on a fake ID used by a suspect in surveillance footage - someone Lipps did not resemble, in a state she had never visited.

The charges were dropped after her attorney, Jay Greenwood, produced bank records showing she was in Tennessee when the Fargo fraud occurred. She was released on Christmas Eve with no way home, the complaint states.

The lawsuit names the city of Fargo and detective Lucas Heck as defendants. A Fargo spokesperson said the city does not comment on pending litigation. Lipps's attorney Eric Rice told WKRN the $10m figure reflects the specific harm she suffered.