FARGO, N.D. (WOKI / WVLT) — An East Tennessee grandmother who spent nearly six months behind bars after being wrongly accused of bank thefts in North Dakota has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Fargo and a former police detective.
Angela Robin Lipps, of Elizabethton, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota. The complaint names the City of Fargo and Fargo Police Detective Lucas Heck, alleging violations of her constitutional rights, malicious prosecution, and false imprisonment.
The lawsuit stems from Lipps’ July 2025 arrest after investigators connected her to a series of fraudulent bank withdrawals in North Dakota through facial recognition technology.
According to court filings, law enforcement agencies in Cass County were investigating thefts involving suspects who used stolen identities to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from bank accounts.
A West Fargo investigator reportedly ran surveillance images through facial recognition software, which identified Lipps’ Facebook profile as a possible match. However, the lawsuit states that investigator viewed the result only as a lead and declined to seek an arrest warrant because there was no corroborating evidence linking Lipps to the crimes.
The complaint alleges Detective Heck later relied on that unverified lead to obtain a warrant without conducting additional investigative steps, including reviewing travel records, checking financial transactions, or using non-suggestive witness identification procedures.
The lawsuit further claims authorities ignored evidence that Lipps lived more than 1,000 miles away in Tennessee, had never traveled to North Dakota, and did not match several physical characteristics of the suspect captured on surveillance video.
Lipps was arrested at her Carter County home on July 11, 2025, and taken into custody at gunpoint. She was later extradited to North Dakota and held in the Cass County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
According to the lawsuit, Lipps remained incarcerated for nearly six months and was unable to see her children or grandchildren while awaiting trial.
The criminal case ultimately unraveled in January 2026 when defense attorneys obtained phone records and location data showing Lipps was in Tennessee when the North Dakota thefts occurred. Prosecutors subsequently dismissed all charges.
The federal lawsuit argues the City of Fargo failed to properly train and supervise officers regarding the use of facial recognition technology despite concerns about false identifications and mistaken matches.
Lipps is seeking $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages, claiming emotional distress, loss of liberty, reputational harm, and other damages resulting from her arrest and incarceration.
As of Thursday, no formal response to the lawsuit had been filed by the defendants.
The case adds to a growing national debate over the use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology in criminal investigations and the safeguards needed to prevent wrongful arrests.
