North Dakota – A Tennessee grandmother is suing the city of Fargo and a Fargo police detective for $10 million after an artificial intelligence facial recognition system allegedly identified her as a possible suspect in a North Dakota bank theft investigation, leading to her arrest and nearly six months in custody.

Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old grandmother from Elizabethton, Tennessee, filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota. The lawsuit names the City of Fargo and Fargo Police Department Detective Lucas Heck as defendants and accuses them of violating her constitutional rights through an investigation that allegedly relied on an incorrect facial recognition lead.

Lipps was arrested in July 2025 while she was babysitting at a neighbor’s home, according to the lawsuit. She was taken into custody at gunpoint by a U.S. Marshals fugitive task force and eventually extradited from Tennessee to North Dakota, where she was held at the Cass County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

The case began with an investigation into a series of bank thefts in the Fargo area in April and May 2025. According to the lawsuit, a female suspect had allegedly used stolen identities and false identification to withdraw money from several banks.

A West Fargo police investigator ran images connected to the investigation through facial recognition software. The technology identified a photo from Lipps’ social media account as a potential match.

The lawsuit says the facial recognition result was based on a photograph from a fake identification card used by the actual suspect rather than surveillance footage showing the woman committing the bank thefts. The West Fargo investigator reportedly considered the result only an investigative lead and did not believe it was strong enough on its own to establish probable cause for an arrest.

According to the complaint, Fargo Detective Lucas Heck nevertheless moved forward with an arrest warrant.

The lawsuit alleges Heck knew Lipps lived in Tennessee, had never been to North Dakota and did not match the physical description of the woman seen in surveillance footage. It also alleges investigators had no evidence showing Lipps had unexplained funds connected to the bank thefts.

The complaint further alleges that the arrest warrant application failed to disclose important information about the facial recognition match and the lack of corroborating evidence.

Lipps was ultimately charged with multiple felony counts connected to the bank fraud investigation, and a nationwide warrant was issued for her arrest.

She remained in custody for months. According to the lawsuit, she spent time in a Tennessee jail before being transported to North Dakota and remained detained through Thanksgiving and her 50th birthday.

The complaint alleges that she was separated from her family during the detention and at times was denied access to medication and her dentures. ABC News reported that Lipps said she lost her residence, vehicle and other property while she was detained.

The charges against Lipps were eventually dismissed after her defense attorney provided records showing she was in Tennessee when the North Dakota crimes occurred.

According to reports, prosecutors dismissed the charges on Christmas Eve after Lipps and her attorney provided bank records showing she was in Tennessee at the time of the alleged thefts.

Lipps is now seeking $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Her lawsuit includes claims involving unlawful seizure and arrest, due process violations, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution and alleged failures by the Fargo Police Department involving policies and training for facial recognition technology.

The lawsuit also alleges that Fargo police did not have adequate policies, training or supervision governing the use of facial recognition technology at the time of the investigation.

The case has also drawn attention because of comments made earlier this year by former Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski. In March, Zibolski acknowledged that the department had identified “a couple of errors” in the investigation.

Zibolski explained that West Fargo police had identified Lipps as a potential lead using facial recognition technology based on the fake identification photograph. He said Fargo detectives incorrectly assumed the technology had also been used on surveillance photographs from the bank robberies.

Zibolski said the Fargo Police Department did not have its own facial recognition technology and that the use of the West Fargo system would not have been permitted under Fargo’s procedures. He said the department had since prohibited that practice and planned to implement additional scrutiny in similar investigations.

The lawsuit comes amid growing national scrutiny of law enforcement’s use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology. The case highlights concerns about the difference between using facial recognition as an investigative lead and treating a computer-generated match as evidence identifying a suspect.

The city of Fargo declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing the pending litigation. ABC News reported that it was unable to reach Heck for comment on the complaint.

The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and $10 million in damages.