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This is your True Crime Minute from courtroom confidential.
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You're fast, no nonsense, update on the latest True Crime developments.
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I'm your host, award-winning prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Joshua Ritter.
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A grandmother from Tennessee claims she spent nearly six months behind bars
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after North Dakota police mistakenly identified her as a suspect in a bank fraud case
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using facial recognition software.
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Angela Lips, age 50, claims that she was arrested at her home in Tennessee by a team of US
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marshals in July of 2025 and booked into county jail as a fugitive from justice from North Dakota.
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Quote, I've never been to North Dakota.
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I don't know anyone from North Dakota.
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Lips told reporters.
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The grandmother learned she had been arrested on charges that included four counts of unauthorized
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use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft.
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Police in Fargo, North Dakota had been investigating a string of bank fraud cases
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between April and May of 2025, involving a suspect who used a fake US Army military
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ID card to withdraw thousands of dollars.
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Police used facial recognition software on surveillance videos captured of this suspect
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to identify her and Lips was flagged by the AI software.
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A Fargo detective who had been working on the case then looked at the 50-year-old social media
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account and driver's license before determining that she appeared to be the suspect involved
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in the case based on her facial features, body type and hair.
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Lips sat in the county jail in Tennessee for four months without bail and was unable to
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plead her case until she could be extradited to North Dakota.
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Once in North Dakota, she finally retained a lawyer and was interviewed by police for the first time
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Lips' attorney, Jay Greenwood, collected her bank records, which provided proof that she had been
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in Tennessee at the same time that the crimes were being committed in North Dakota.
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Quote, around the same time she's depositing social security checks,
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she's buying cigarettes at a gas station.
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Around the same time she's buying a pizza.
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She's using a cash app to buy an Uber Eats, said Greenwood.
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Five days after she was interviewed by Fargo police,
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Lips said she was dismissed and released from jail in North Dakota.
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However, the grandmother said she was given no expenses from the police to help her
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return home and relied on funds from defense attorneys to get a hotel and eventually find
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transportation back to Tennessee.
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And that's your true crime minute.
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Catch more in-depth coverage in our weekly Roundup episode every Saturday,
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or go to thecourtroomconfidential.com.
