{
  "meta": {
    "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T18:37:47.445Z",
    "formatVersion": 2,
    "selection": {
      "q": "bank",
      "system": "",
      "harm": "",
      "context": "",
      "country": "",
      "role": "",
      "relation": "",
      "evidence": "",
      "year": "",
      "response": "lawsuit",
      "severity": "",
      "verification": "",
      "view": "incidents",
      "sort": "added"
    },
    "totalIncidents": 1,
    "coverage": {
      "cases": 1,
      "countries": 1,
      "languages": 1,
      "unknownLocation": 0,
      "locationPending": 0,
      "unknownLanguage": 0,
      "unknownDate": 0,
      "lawsuits": 1,
      "regulatory": 0,
      "minors": 0,
      "coreRelations": 0,
      "contextualRelations": 1,
      "mixedRelations": 0,
      "unknownRelations": 0,
      "relationPending": 0,
      "relationUnknown": 0
    },
    "countingNote": "Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.",
    "affectedCountNote": "Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.",
    "source": "NOPE Incident Tracker",
    "url": "https://nope.net/incidents",
    "license": "CC BY 4.0"
  },
  "incidents": [
    {
      "id": "2025-lipps-facial-recognition-wrongful-jailing",
      "caseFacts": {
        "claims": [
          {
            "id": "c1",
            "status": "corroborated",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "Surveillance 'showed woman using a fake US army military ID to withdraw tens of thousands'; the 8-count charge list.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              },
              {
                "locator": "Zibolski 'acknowledged that investigators made incorrect assumptions based on the West Fargo Police Department's Clearview AI facial recognition technology'.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s4"
              },
              {
                "locator": "Warrant signed 2025-07-01 with nationwide extradition; the chief: the case 'was not solely based on just that one piece'; 'an AI function through the North Dakota State Intelligence Center'.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s2"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "The case began with bank-fraud surveillance of a woman using a fake U.S. Army military ID to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars; an AI facial-recognition identification tied Lipps to that surveillance — recorded by Snopes as the West Fargo Police Department's Clearview AI technology, and by Fargo's chief as 'an AI function through the North Dakota State Intelligence Center... not anything that we own'; a nationwide-extradition warrant was signed on 1 July 2025.",
            "causal_attribution": "The vendor attribution differs between the chains (Clearview per Snopes' reading of the WFPD investigation; the state intelligence center's function per the chief) and is recorded with the discrepancy."
          },
          {
            "id": "c2",
            "status": "corroborated",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "'US marshals arrested Lipps at her Tennessee home while she was babysitting four children... taken away at gunpoint'; 'nearly four months without bail'; bank records 'more than 1,200 miles away in Tennessee'.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              },
              {
                "locator": "PD timeline: TN waiver 10-20; booked Cass Co. 10-30; bank records presented 12-12; dismissal agreed 12-23; released 12-24.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s2"
              },
              {
                "locator": "Dismissal 'without prejudice... Angela remains a person they are investigating'.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s3"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "U.S. Marshals arrested her at gunpoint at her Tennessee home on 14 July 2025 while she babysat four children; she fought extradition for about three months in a Tennessee jail, was booked into Cass County on 30 October, and was released on 24 December after her bank records showed her more than 1,200 miles away in Tennessee; charges were dismissed without prejudice.",
            "causal_attribution": "The custody timeline is consistent across the Guardian, KVLY's police timeline and Snopes; the dismissal's without-prejudice character comes from KVLY's attorney piece."
          },
          {
            "id": "c3",
            "status": "documented",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "KVLY-obtained email 'showed six Fargo detectives were notified of Lipps' arrest in July — nearly five months before Fargo Police say they knew she was in custody'.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s3"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "An email obtained by KVLY shows six Fargo detectives were notified of her arrest in July 2025 — nearly five months before the department says it learned she was in custody (5 December).",
            "causal_attribution": "KVLY's own document reporting; the department's stated knowledge date comes from its police timeline."
          },
          {
            "id": "c4",
            "status": "corroborated",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "The 'incorrect assumptions' concession (Snopes' reading of the 24 March presser).",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s4"
              },
              {
                "locator": "The chief's 'not solely based on just that one piece' and the state-center tool description.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s2"
              },
              {
                "locator": "Stefonowicz's April statement on an apology.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s3"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski acknowledged 'incorrect assumptions' linked to the AI identification while insisting the case 'was not solely based on just that one piece'; incoming Chief Stefonowicz said in April that if Ms. Lipps deserves an apology, 'I will absolutely be the first person to reach out'.",
            "causal_attribution": "The concession's exact wording beyond Snopes' paraphrase is unverified; both chiefs' positions are recorded as stated."
          },
          {
            "id": "c5",
            "status": "corroborated",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "'lost her home, her car and her dog.'",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              },
              {
                "locator": "Rice: 'pursuing potential civil rights claims, though no lawsuit has been filed'.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s3"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "She lost her home, her car and her dog; her attorney Eric Rice said he was pursuing potential civil-rights claims, with no lawsuit filed as of 31 March 2026.",
            "causal_attribution": "The losses are from the Guardian's account of her situation; the claim status is the attorney's statement as of 31 March 2026."
          },
          {
            "id": "c6",
            "status": "reported",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "'Angela Lipps, of Elizabethton, Tennessee, filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in North Dakota against the City of Fargo and Fargo Police Department Detective Lucas Heck'; 'The complaint says Heck failed to disclose that the facial recognition result was actually based on a photo from the suspect's fake ID, not the surveillance footage'; 'The lawsuit brings five claims... Lipps is seeking $10 million in damages'; 'These are allegations contained in a civil complaint. No response has been filed as of this writing.'",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s5"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "On 15 September 2026 Lipps filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit in the District of North Dakota against the City of Fargo and Detective Lucas Heck seeking $10 million, alleging that he relied on a flawed facial-recognition match based on the suspect's fake-ID photo, ignored exculpatory evidence and failed to disclose that such results are only investigative leads; the suit brings five claims and says the department had no facial-recognition policy or training at the time.",
            "causal_attribution": "The filing and its contents are reported by the same station chain (KVLY) that broke the case; the complaint itself was not inspected, so the claim is recorded as reported rather than documented. The InForum report of the same filing answered HTTP 403."
          }
        ],
        "effects": [
          {
            "label": "five months wrongfully jailed on an AI facial-recognition identification, with lasting losses",
            "claim_id": "c2",
            "direction": "negative"
          }
        ],
        "sources": [
          {
            "id": "s1",
            "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/12/tennessee-grandmother-ai-fraud",
            "kind": "news_report",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (12 Mar 2026, Marina Dunbar).",
            "independence_group": "guardian"
          },
          {
            "id": "s2",
            "url": "https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/03/17/chief-zibolski-ai-was-lead-not-only-evidence-wrongful-jail-allegation/",
            "kind": "local_tv_news",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (17 Mar 2026, Alix Larsen).",
            "independence_group": "kvly"
          },
          {
            "id": "s3",
            "url": "https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/04/01/attorney-discusses-potential-lawsuit-after-tennessee-grandmother-jailed-by-facial-recognition-error/",
            "kind": "local_tv_news",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (31 Mar 2026, Ethan Kramer).",
            "independence_group": "kvly"
          },
          {
            "id": "s4",
            "url": "https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ai-tennessee-woman-jail/",
            "kind": "fact_check",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (19 Jul 2026, updated 22 Jul; rating True). Aggregates the InForum/WDAY originals (blocked, 403); its Clearview attribution reflects that chain.",
            "independence_group": "snopes"
          },
          {
            "id": "s5",
            "url": "https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/09/15/tennessee-woman-sues-fargo-ex-detective-over-wrongful-arrest-tied-facial-recognition-error/",
            "kind": "local_tv_news",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-16 (datePublished 2026-09-15T17:39Z; Valley News Live, which first reported the case in March 2026).",
            "independence_group": "kvly"
          }
        ],
        "version": 1,
        "ai_roles": [
          "institutional_use"
        ],
        "contexts": [
          "justice"
        ],
        "unknowns": [
          "The InForum original investigation (the first reporting chain) is blocked (403) and was not read; Snopes' and the Guardian's accounts of it are used instead.",
          "The exact wording of the 'incorrect assumptions' concession beyond Snopes' paraphrase is unverified.",
          "The vendor question — Clearview AI (per Snopes) versus the North Dakota State Intelligence Center's AI function (per the chief) — is unresolved.",
          "The woman in the bank-fraud surveillance (the actual suspect) is not reported as identified; the dismissal without prejudice leaves the investigation open.",
          "Her arrest's bail conditions and the custody conditions are not detailed in the inspected sources.",
          "The federal complaint (filed 15 September 2026) was not inspected and its case number is not given in the inspected report; the InForum account of the filing was blocked (403)."
        ],
        "geography": {
          "basis": "Event: arrest at her Tennessee home; jailing in Tennessee and Cass County, North Dakota; the underlying bank fraud in the Fargo/West Fargo area. Affected person: Lipps, Tennessee. Court: the Cass County charges (dismissed), North Dakota.",
          "court_countries": [
            "US"
          ],
          "event_countries": [
            "US"
          ],
          "affected_person_countries": [
            "US"
          ]
        },
        "publication": {
          "basis": "Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional automated-decision case (made_decision_about / made_claim_about): an AI facial-recognition identification set five months of wrongful custody in motion, documented by the Guardian, an independent local chain with its own document reporting (KVLY), and a fact-check carrying the blocked original chain. She is named in national coverage; the police chiefs' accounts are preserved as contrary context. Updated 16 September 2026 with the $10 million federal suit filed on 15 September, recorded from the Valley News Live report as a reported claim.",
          "reviewed_on": "2026-09-16"
        },
        "ai_involvement": {
          "basis": "Snopes records the misidentification as based on the West Fargo PD's Clearview AI technology; Fargo's police chief separately describes 'an AI function through the North Dakota State Intelligence Center' and concedes 'incorrect assumptions' while insisting the case was not solely based on that one piece. The vendor attribution (Clearview vs the state center's function) is recorded with the discrepancy.",
          "status": "supported"
        },
        "person_relations": [
          "made_decision_about",
          "made_claim_about"
        ]
      },
      "name": "Tennessee grandmother Angela Lipps jailed five months on an AI facial-recognition misidentification; charges dismissed after bank records placed her 1,200 miles away",
      "summary": "On 14 July 2025, U.S. Marshals arrested Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old Tennessee grandmother, at gunpoint at her home while she was babysitting four children, on a nationwide-extradition North Dakota warrant: West Fargo police's AI facial-recognition technology had tied her to bank-fraud surveillance of a woman using a fake U.S. Army military ID to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars. She fought extradition for about three months in a Tennessee jail, was booked into Cass County, North Dakota on 30 October 2025 on four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft, and was released on 24 December after her bank records showed her more than 1,200 miles away in Tennessee; charges were dismissed without prejudice. Fargo's police chief acknowledged 'incorrect assumptions' linked to the AI identification; an email obtained by KVLY shows six Fargo detectives were notified of her arrest in July, nearly five months before the department says it knew she was in custody. She lost her home, her car and her dog; her attorneys are pursuing potential civil-rights claims, with no lawsuit filed as of 31 March 2026. On 15 September 2026 she filed a $10 million federal civil-rights suit in the District of North Dakota against the City of Fargo and the detective, alleging he relied on a flawed facial-recognition match and ignored exculpatory evidence.",
      "incidentDate": "2025-07-14",
      "incidentEndDate": "2025-12-24",
      "incidentKind": "bounded_series",
      "incidentDatePrecision": "range",
      "exposurePattern": "single_interaction",
      "reportedDate": "2026-03-12",
      "aiSystem": "Clearview AI facial recognition (per Snopes' account of the West Fargo PD investigation); described by Fargo's chief as 'an AI function through the North Dakota State Intelligence Center'",
      "aiCompany": "Clearview AI (vendor per Snopes); North Dakota State Intelligence Center (per Fargo police chief)",
      "severity": "high",
      "verificationStatus": "credible",
      "harmCategories": [],
      "harmOutcomes": [
        "legal_harm",
        "loss_of_autonomy",
        "reputational_harm",
        "property_loss",
        "psychological_distress"
      ],
      "harmOutcomeSummary": "Five months jailed on an AI-driven misidentification — arrested at gunpoint while babysitting, held states away from home — ending only when her bank records proved she was 1,200 miles away; she lost her home, car and dog, and the dismissal without prejudice leaves her 'a person they are investigating'.",
      "frameworkFacets": [],
      "causationStatus": "supported",
      "participantUsersAffectedMin": 0,
      "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 1,
      "affectedCountStatus": "exact",
      "affectedCountEvidence": "One documented harmed person: Lipps, the misidentified defendant (three chains; her attorneys' account). The children she was babysitting are recorded in the narrative but not counted as harmed persons (no harm to them is reported).",
      "victimAgeRange": "adult",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "platformType": "other",
      "outcomeType": "lawsuit_filed",
      "outcomeStatus": "ongoing",
      "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/12/tennessee-grandmother-ai-fraud",
      "primarySourceLabel": "The Guardian (12 Mar 2026, Marina Dunbar) — the arrest, the custody ordeal, the losses",
      "firstPublishedAt": "2026-09-15T10:28:13.154947+00:00",
      "scopeVersion": "facts-v3",
      "tags": [
        "civil-rights",
        "clearview",
        "facial-recognition",
        "justice",
        "lawsuit",
        "made-claim-about",
        "made-decision-about",
        "north-dakota",
        "tennessee",
        "wrongful-arrest"
      ]
    }
  ]
}