Did Tennessee woman spend 6 months in jail after AI tool misidentified her?

The tool falsely identified the woman, Angela Lipps, as a suspect in a North Dakota bank fraud investigation. Published July 19, 2026 Claim: A Tennessee woman spent six months in jail after an artificial intelligence tool misidentified her as a North Dakota bank fraud suspect. Rating: ContextIn a March 2026 press conference, the Fargo Police Department insisted it charged Angela Lipps based on both the AI identification and other evidence, although the police department has not specified what that other evidence was and had already dismissed Lipps' charges months prior. In July 2026, various Instagram accounts shared a claim about a grandmother they said was wrongly jailed because police relied on an artificial intelligence tool that misidentified her as a suspect in a crime far from her home. For example, one Instagram post (archived) claimed, "AI wrongly linked a grandmother to a fraud case, and she spent 6 months behind bars. She lost her home, her car, and her dog after police arrested her at gunpoint while she was babysitting her grandkids." Various (archived) other (archived) posts (archived) claimed that police arrested Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old woman from Tennessee, and jailed her as a suspect in a North Dakota bank fraud investigation because AI facial recognition tools falsely identified Lipps as a suspect. Snopes readers wrote in to ask if the story was true. The claim is true, based on press conferences held by the Fargo Police Department, an interview of Lipps' defense attorney Jay Greenwood and local news reporting on the case. The Fargo Police Department in Fargo, North Dakota, was the police department that requested the warrant for Lipps and charged her. The attention on the case, as well as investigations into what happened and the release of details on it to the public, appeared to originate from a local news investigation into it after Lipps was jailed and released. On March 11, 2026, WBAY, a Fargo TV news channel and news outlet InForum, which are both owned by the same parent company, reported that U.S. Marshals arrested Lipps July 14, 2025, from her Tennessee home. She was held without bail at her county jail for several months, then extradited to Fargo based on AI facial recognition technology. According to the reports, the AI tool incorrectly identified Lipps as the suspect surveillance footage showed using a fake military ID to withdraw money from a Fargo bank. The charges against Lipps were dismissed, according to the reporting, on Dec. 24, 2025, five days after her first interview with the police. She was released on that date. In the weeks following the WBAY report, local officials began acknowledging and responding to growing local interest in the case. On March 16, 2026, the Fargo city board of commissioners consulted with attorneys "in anticipation of reasonably predictable or pending civil or criminal litigation involving Angela Lipps." On March 17, then-Fargo police chief Dave Zibolski told local news outlets that Lipps wasn't charged solely based on the AI facial recognition misidentification, but did not say what other evidence the department had against her. On March 18, Lipps' criminal defense attorney Jay Greenwood said on a podcast also under the Forum News Service umbrella, which includes WBAY and InForum, that no evidence beyond the AI facial recognition match was used to charge Lipps. "So I don't know what he's talking about," Greenwood said, referring to Zibolski. During that interview, Greenwood explained why Lipps was in jail for so long. Following her arrest in July, she spent a little over three months fighting extradition to North Dakota while jailed in Tennessee. Greenwood was assigned Lipps' case on October 31, 2025. He collected Lipps' bank records to prove she was in Tennessee at the time the bank fraud in Fargo occurred and sent the records to the police department and state's attorney's office in early December. However, in a March 24, 2026, press conference available to watch on Facebook, Zibolski said that the Fargo Police Department didn't know Lipps was in custody until Dec. 5, 2025. Zibolski said then that the Fargo Police Department was taking steps to improve its internal communications about when suspects are in custody. Zibolski acknowledged that investigators made incorrect assumptions based on the West Fargo Police Department's Clearview AI facial recognition technology that identified Lipps as a potential subject. (The West Fargo Police Department reportedly said that it didn't charge Lipps itself because "the evidence wasn't there.") Again, Zibolski said that AI was not the only evidence investigators used when charging Lipps, but he did not specify what further evidence there was. During that press conference (at about 18:45 in the Facebook video), a reporter asked Zibolski why the department had not yet apologized to Lipps and cleared her name, to which he said it was still an active investigation and he did not want to prematurely rule out any suspects. The Fargo Police Department maintained that position even as it got a new chief of police in April 2026. The new chief, Travis Stefonowicz, told local news outlets in an interview, "if Ms. Lipps deserves an apology at that point and time I will absolutely be the first person to reach out to her and apologize." Snopes could not find evidence that Lipps filed a lawsuit against the Fargo Police Department or any other agency for her arrest and detainment prior to publishing. However, Fargo news publications reported on March 31 that Lipps' attorneys were considering legal action. The timeline of events — Lipps' arrest in Tennessee on July 14, 2025, extradition to North Dakota on Oct. 30, interview by a detective on Dec. 19 and release on Dec. 24 — was also described in a GoFundMe fundraiser benefitting Lipps and promoted by GoFundMe itself since at least March 14, 2026, three days after the initial news report about her case. Sources Clearview AI. "Clearview AI | the World's Largest Facial Network." Clearview AI, https://www.clearview.ai/. Accessed 16 July 2026.Fargo Police Department. "24K Views · 159 Reactions | We Understand the Significant Public Interest Surrounding the Investigation Involving Ms. Lipps and the Use of Facial Recognition Technology. Earlier Today, the #FargoPD Held a News Conference to Provide an Update on This Case. We Encourage You to Watch the Full News Conference in This Video, Following a Brief Message from Chief Dave Zibolski. Thank You. | Fargo Police Department." Facebookapp, 2026, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3022356807962793. Accessed 15 July 2026.GoFundMe. "GoFundMe - Support Angela: Https://Gfme.Co/4sMIfFC." Facebook.Com, 2026, https://www.facebook.com/gofundme/photos/support-angela-httpsgfmeco4smiffcangela-lipps-is-a-50-year-old-grandmother-from-/1382132063953344/. Accessed 15 July 2026.Henson, Matt. "AI Error Jails Innocent Grandmother for Months in Fargo Fraud Case." InForum, 12 Mar. 2026, https://www.inforum.com/news/fargo/ai-error-jails-innocent-grandmother-for-months-in-fargo-case. Accessed 15 July 2026.---. "Zibolski Says Department Followed Process in Fraud Arrest." InForum, 17 Mar. 2026, https://www.inforum.com/news/fargo/zibolski-says-department-followed-process-in-fraud-arrest. Accessed 15 July 2026.Kramer, Ethan. "Attorney Discusses Potential Lawsuit After Tennessee Grandmother Jailed by Facial Recognition Error." Https://Www.Valleynewslive.Com, KVLY, Apr. 2026, https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/04/01/attorney-discusses-potential-lawsuit-after-tennessee-grandmother-jailed-by-facial-recognition-error/. Accessed 15 July 2026.---. "Fargo and West Fargo Police Dispute Details in Facial Recognition Misidentification Case." Https://Www.Valleynewslive.Com, KVLY, 24 Mar. 2026, https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/03/24/fargo-west-fargo-police-dispute-details-facial-recognition-misidentification-case/. Accessed 16 July 2026.---. "Fargo Interim Chief Responds to New Questions in Angela Lipps Wrongful Jailing Case." Https://Www.Valleynewslive.Com, KVLY, 2 Apr. 2026, https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/04/02/fargo-interim-chief-responds-new-questions-angela-lipps-wrongful-jailing-case/. Accessed 15 July 2026.Larsen, Alix. "Chief Zibolski: AI Was a Lead, Not the Only Evidence, in Wrongful-Jail Allegation." Https://Www.Valleynewslive.Com, KVLY, 17 Mar. 2026, https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/03/17/chief-zibolski-ai-was-lead-not-only-evidence-wrongful-jail-allegation/. Accessed 15 July 2026.Nessa, Michael. "Donate to Innocent Grandmother Jailed 6 Months by AI Error, Organized by Michael Nessa." Gofundme.Com, 2025, https://www.gofundme.com/f/innocent-grandmother-jailed-6-months-by-ai-error. Accessed 15 July 2026.Plain Talk. "Angela Lipps's Lawyer Says #Fargo Police 'Can't Justify' Her Arrest on #Ai Evidence." Www.Youtube.Com, 18 Mar. 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf2m7uz7ejg. Accessed 15 July 2026."The City of Fargo - March 16, 2026 Minutes." Fargond.Gov, 2026, https://fargond.gov/city-government/departments/city-commission/agendas-minutes/2026-minutes-video-archive/march-16-2026-minutes. Accessed 15 July 2026. By Emery Winter Emery Winter is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and previously worked for TEGNA'S VERIFY national fact-checking team. 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