The 66-year-old Arizona girl was in her yard at residence when a van crammed with U.S. Marshals out of the blue pulled up and folks pointing rifles in her face began telling her she was underneath arrest.
A girl tried to show her innocence, whereas not even positive she was coping with the right authorities, in a daunting incident of mistaken identification simply outdoors Phoenix, Arixona.
In stunning bodycam footage obtained by ABC15 after six months by way of a Freedom of Info Act request, 66-year-old Penny McCarthy is seen as she’s out of the blue confronted at her residence by six U.S. Marshals pointing rifles at her and telling her she’s underneath arrest.
Habersham County Sheriff’s Workplace/Google Maps
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McCarthy instantly knew one thing was improper on March 5, 2024, however she wasn’t positive what it was. In truth, she informed ABC15, “I actually felt like I used to be being kidnapped.”
Even taking it at face worth, the harmless grandmother gave federal brokers a number of alternatives to confirm they have been on the proper residence and confronting the precise individual. All of this with weapons pointed at her and a variety of aggressive U.S. Marshals.
Arrest of Penny McCarthy
“We now have an arrest warrant,” one among them tells her on the video.
“For me?” she replies, to which the officer responds, “Sure. For you.”
“Who am I?” she then asks, making an attempt to have them affirm her identification.
At that time, although, a number of brokers might be heard shouting at her issues like. “Flip away.” “Flip round.” “We’ll focus on it later.” “You are gonna get hit.”
She once more makes an attempt to make clear their mistake on the video, asking, “You do not need to affirm who I’m?”
The agent making an attempt to apprehend her responds, “Put your hand behind your again. We’ll focus on that later.”
At one other level, an agent tells her, “In the event you flip round once more, you are getting tased. You perceive me.”
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Talking with ABC15 in regards to the terrifying incident, McCarthy stated, “I’m so disenchanted in my authorities, It is not humorous.”
After watching the video for the primary time, she stated, “It simply makes me extra offended than earlier than.” She known as what she witnessed on the video an “abuse of energy. Interval.”
She additionally informed ABC15 that regardless of what’s heard on the video, federal brokers by no means did “focus on it later” along with her relating to her identification. “They did nothing however deal with me like crap and deceive me.”
Federal brokers did inform her who they thought she was after they’d her in handcuffs.
On the time she was arrested and detained, federal brokers have been insisting she was Carole Anne Rozak, a 70-year-old fugitive from Oklahoma. Rozek had served jail time for non-violent crimes, however didn’t report back to her probation officers after her launch.
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ABC15 Investigates McCarthy Arrest
One month after her arrest, on April 4, 2024, ABC15 spoke with McCarthy, who supplied intensive proof of her identification — insisting that she shouldn’t be and has by no means been Carole Anne Rozak — to the information outlet. On the time, federal authorities have been nonetheless satisfied she was.
Amongst that proof was her California start certificates and driver’s license. Rozek, in the meantime, was reportedly born in Canada and has a Canadian social safety quantity.
“I am a senior citizen that obtained picked up at gunpoint in her entrance yard. And brought to jail,” McCarthy informed the outlet on the time. “No person believes it.”
She additional stated that brokers apparently IDed her by her Fb image.
Scanner Media/Wooden County Prosecutor’s Workplace
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She detailed on the time that officers “proceeded to chain my ankles, chained my wrists, put me at the back of a automobile and once I requested for why I used to be underneath arrest they stated a parole violation.” She was launched the next day pending an identification listening to.
McCarthy stated her daughter and sister each tried to confirm her identification with authorities, exhibiting brokers household pictures going again years. “It nearly makes my mind cease working to consider the extent of injustice concerned right here,” her daughter Patricia Huffman informed ABC15.
The mom of 5, and grandmother of 11, detailed that first evening in federal custody, which included being “strip searched 3 times in entrance of all these folks… It’s simply humiliating and degrading.”
ABC15 started to dig into her case of mistaken identification, as her daughter famous that her mom’s fastened earnings meant hiring a lawyer to combat this was out of the query. The outlet in contrast a 1999 mugshot of Rozek to the Fb image brokers used to arrest McCarthy.
Fb / Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace
“I do not appear to be this girl,” she stated.
A decide had beforehand arrange an identification listening to for April 9 in federal courtroom for McCarthy (above left) to try to show she was not Rozak.
McCarthy Exonerated
Someday earlier than her scheduled identification listening to, an Arizona federal decide dismissed the case towards her and canceled the listening to after admitting that they’d made a mistake in arresting McCarthy.
They revealed that her fingerprints do not match these on file for Rozak. ABC15 notes that federal brokers fingerprinted McCarthy when she was first taken into custody in March. McCarthy stated investigators initially informed her the prints have been a match for Rozak, however prosecutors informed the decide the subsequent day they did not have anybody accessible to investigate her prints.
“The U.S. Marshals Service has acquired affirmation from fingerprint evaluation that Ms. Penny McCarthy shouldn’t be the fugitive Carole Anne Rozak, needed for an excellent parole violation warrant in Oklahoma,” the company stated in an announcement acquired by the information station on the time.
When requested how this might have occurred, ABC15 reviews that the U.S. Marshals Service stated a preliminary overview decided that brokers adopted correct procedures in “good-faith reliance on the excellent warrant” and “regrets any inconvenience brought on by the mistaken identification of Ms. McCarthy.”
“We’re sorry that occurred. Have a pleasant day. Actually? It is not proper,” McCarthy stated in response. “It is a hell of a system.”
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