A Tennessee woman spent six months in jail after an artificial intelligence tool misidentified her as a North Dakota bank fraud suspect. The Fargo Police Department insisted they charged Angela Lipps based on the AI identification and other evidence, though they have not specified what that other evidence was. The charges against Lipps were dismissed months prior to this statement.
In July 2026, social media accounts circulated a story about a grandmother purportedly jailed due to an AI misidentification. These posts alleged that police arrested Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old woman from Tennessee, who was then jailed as a suspect in a North Dakota bank fraud case. According to these claims, facial recognition technology falsely identified Lipps as the perpetrator.
Reports indicate that the incident stemmed from a local news investigation. On March 11, 2026, InForum and WBAY reported that U.S. Marshals arrested Lipps in July 2025 from her Tennessee home. She was held without bail in her county jail for several months before being extradited to Fargo, based on AI facial recognition. The AI tool allegedly misidentified Lipps as the suspect seen in surveillance footage using a fake military ID to withdraw money from a Fargo bank.
The charges against Lipps were reportedly dismissed on December 24, 2025, five days after her initial police interview, leading to her release.
In the weeks following the initial news report, local officials began to address the growing public interest. On March 16, 2026, the Fargo city board of commissioners discussed potential litigation involving Angela Lipps. The following day, then-Fargo police chief Dave Zibolski stated that Lipps was not charged solely based on the AI misidentification, but he did not provide details about any other evidence.
Lipps’ defense attorney, Jay Greenwood, countered this on March 18, asserting that no evidence beyond the AI facial recognition match was used to charge Lipps. Greenwood explained that Lipps spent over three months fighting extradition after her July arrest. After being assigned the case on October 31, 2025, Greenwood gathered Lipps’ bank records to prove her presence in Tennessee during the Fargo bank fraud and submitted them in early December.
However, during a March 24, 2026, press conference, Zibolski claimed the Fargo Police Department was unaware of Lipps’ custody until December 5, 2025, and stated the department was improving internal communication regarding suspect custody. Zibolski acknowledged that investigators made incorrect assumptions based on Clearview AI facial recognition technology that identified Lipps. He reiterated that AI was not the sole evidence used in charging Lipps, but again, did not specify any additional evidence.
During the same press conference, when asked why the department had not apologized to Lipps, Zibolski cited the ongoing investigation and his reluctance to prematurely rule out suspects. This stance persisted even after a new police chief, Travis Stefonowicz, took over in April 2026. Stefonowicz indicated he would apologize if Lipps was found to deserve one.
As of the publication date, Snopes could not find evidence of Lipps filing a lawsuit. However, Fargo news outlets reported on March 31 that Lipps’ attorneys were considering legal action.
The timeline provided by a GoFundMe fundraiser for Lipps and promoted by GoFundMe itself aligns with other reports: Lipps’ arrest in Tennessee on July 14, 2025, extradition to North Dakota on October 30, interview by a detective on December 19, and release on December 24.
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