Carter County woman sues Fargo, N.D. after false arrest

A woman from Carter County has filed a lawsuit against the city of Fargo, N.D. for a false arrest made after investigators used artificial intelligence facial recognition technology to identify her as the perpetrator of a bank robbery. Angela Robin Lipps filed the lawsuit against the city of Fargo, N.D. and one of its police department investigators, Lucas Heck. Lipps is accusing both of unlawful seizure and arrest, violation of due process rights and for holding her in jail for six months for bank theft charges. Evidence showed that Lipps had never been to North Dakota, according to the lawsuit. In the lawsuit, Lipps said a police investigator used artificial intelligence facial recognition technology to find leads in a North Dakota bank robbery case. Lipp said a social media photograph of her was flagged by that technology as a potential lead. Lipps disputed the findings of the technology in the lawsuit. She said surveillance video of the woman who committed the crimes would show that the thief did not look like Lipps. Witnesses described the woman who committed the crimes as having a larger body build. She said there were no transactions showing she had been in North Dakota at the time of the crimes. She would later provide evidence of transactions she made in Tennessee at the time the crimes in North Dakota were committed. She said there were also no witnesses at the North Dakota banks who identified Lipps as the suspect. Lipps also said in the lawsuit that the original investigator who used AI technology declined to request a warrant for Lipps, "knowing there was insufficient evidence to connect her to the offenses that occurred half the country away from where she lived." The lawsuit also notes that the vendors of the AI facial recognition technology warns its users that the potential leads must be corroborated with other evidence. Police policies in the state of North Dakota prohibit officers from relying exclusively on AI facial recognition results. Despite these precautions, the lawsuit said Heck did not review Lipps' financial or travel records and did not check with bank tellers to see if they could pick Lipps image from a lineup. Instead, Heck requested an arrest warrant for Lipps. "At Heck's request, Lipps was detained at gunpoint, held in jail for six months, and forced to appear in North Dakota on charges where she was threatened with being imprisoned for years," according to the lawsuit. Lipps was arrested at gunpoint in Tennessee on the North Dakota warrant on July 14, 2025 by the United States Marshals Smokey Mountain Fugitive Task Force. She was transported to the Carter County Detention Center until she was extradited to North Dakota. At the time, she was on probation in Tennessee due to prior criminal conduct, which delayed her extradition until October. The lawsuit says she missed Thanksgiving and her 50th birthday while under arrest. Lipps was able to produce bank records that showed she was in Tennessee at the time of the North Dakota bank thefts, and her case was dismissed. The lawsuit said "Lipps was released into the freezing cold of Fargo on Christmas Eve, with no way to get home to Tennessee." Lipps is seeking $10 million in the lawsuit, and she has requested a jury trial.