Angela Lipps was babysitting in Tennessee when she was arrested in July 2025 over bank thefts in North Dakota. Approximately six months later, the charges were dropped after her attorney supplied records showing she was in Tennessee when the crimes occurred, according to her federal complaint.
Lipps is now suing the City of Fargo and detective Lucas Heck for $10 million. The complaint, reported by ABC News, alleges investigators inadequately checked a facial-recognition lead before seeking her arrest. It also challenges the department's training and supervision of officers handling such information.
Detectives Misunderstood Which Images Produced the Lead
A West Fargo investigator searched a photograph from a fake ID used by the bank-theft suspect, according to the complaint. Facial-recognition software identified Lipps' social-media photograph as a potential lead, which was passed to Fargo detectives. Heck subsequently requested the arrest warrant; he is not accused of operating the software.
The photograph on an ID, however, does not necessarily depict the person using it. At a March 2026 briefing, then-Fargo police chief Dave Zibolski acknowledged that detectives wrongly assumed surveillance photographs had also been submitted for comparison. He said Fargo should have supplied those images rather than assuming West Fargo had included them.
The complaint alleges Heck failed to investigate thoroughly or establish sufficient probable cause before requesting the warrant. It says Lipps differed from the surveillance suspect in build, facial features, and tattoos, and had never been to North Dakota before her arrest.
Bank Records Challenged the Identification After Months in Custody
Lipps initially remained in custody in Tennessee, where alleged probation violations linked to unrelated prior conduct were resolved before her extradition. Once in North Dakota, she was held on a $100,000 bond she could not pay.
Her attorney later supplied bank records placing her in Tennessee at the time of the North Dakota crimes, according to the complaint. The charges were dropped, and she was released on Christmas Eve.
She says she then discovered that her residence, car and other property were gone. The complaint describes months separated from her family, missed birthdays and holidays, and fear that she would be wrongly convicted and imprisoned for years.
The complaint also alleges that Lipps was denied basic care during detention, including her medications and dentures. She struggled with uncertainty about when she would be released and the possibility of years in prison. Those alleged conditions form another part of the harm for which she is now seeking compensation.
Fargo Restricted Facial-Recognition Searches After Acknowledging Errors
Zibolski said Fargo did not have its own facial-recognition system and typically referred unidentified people to the North Dakota State and Local Intelligence Center. He said use of West Fargo's system would not have been allowed and had since been prohibited. The department would also apply more scrutiny before moving cases forward.
The lawsuit followed in September. Asked about the complaint, a Fargo spokesperson said the city did not comment on pending litigation.
Lipps' damages demand concerns both the detention and what followed it. Her complaint says she continues to fear another wrongful arrest. The charges were dropped, but her account describes a return home without the property she had lost or the sense of safety she had before.
