Angela Lipps contributed/GoFundMe
FARGO (KFGO) – The Fargo Police Chief is defending his department’s investigation into a bank fraud case as city leaders prepare for a potential lawsuit from 50-year-old Angela Lipps, a Tennessee woman who spent nearly six months in jail after being mistakenly identified as a suspect.
Police Chief Dave Zibolski said in an interview with KFGO News, the case was reviewed by multiple entities.
“Probable cause is that first level to issue charges, that was done in this case. The State’s Attorney reviewed the investigation, issued the charges based on probable cause and referred it for warrant to a judge. The judge in this case reviewed it for probable cause, issued the warrant and also authorized extradition, which doesn’t happen in every case. This is the criminal justice system at work and that’s the process that was followed in Ms. Lipps’ investigation.”
Zibolski adds, the case remains open and active. Lipps’ charges were dismissed, but could be re-filed if investigators uncover additional information.
Lipps was taken into custody in Tennessee last July, then transferred to the Cass County Jail in October. Zibolski says his department wasn’t notified that Lipps was in custody until weeks later. The woman’s attorney brought new evidence forward, and she was released on Christmas Eve.
“We’ll be discussing some communication issues with our partners in Cass County and the State’s Attorney’s Office in terms of notification because we think it would be helpful for the agency to know, in addition to the State’s Attorney’s Office, especially when things like this happen it would have been nice to have a heads up and have that discussion sooner. But I think we moved as quickly as possible once we were notified of the situation.”
Case Timeline According to the Fargo Police Department
- Bank fraud crimes occurred in late April/early May
- June 2: Fargo Police sent their investigation to the State’s Attorney’s Office for review of potential charges
- July 1: The State’s Attorney’s Office issued charges, forwarded the case to a judge to issue a warrant. Judge reviews the case, issued the warrant and extradition was authorized
- July 14: Angela Lipps was arrested in Tennessee
- Oct. 20: Cass County was notified by Tennessee that they had a waiver of extradition
- Oct. 30: Lipps is booked into the Cass County Jail. The State’s Attorney’s Office is notified
- Oct. 31: Lipps’ initial court appearance
- Dec. 5: The State’s Attorney told a Fargo Police Detective that Lipps was in custody and had a court-appointed attorney. Zibolski says this is the first time his department was aware that Lipps was in custody
- Dec. 12: Lipps’ attorney told the State’s Attorney they had potentially exculpatory evidence that would require more investigation
- Dec. 19: Interview with Lipps, her attorney, a Fargo Police Detective and the State’s Attorney
- Dec. 23: The detective and State’s Attorney’s Office decided, with the new evidence, it’s not definitive whether Lipps was involved in the bank fraud. She is released from the Cass County Jail.
Lipps writes on a GoFundMe page that she was released with no coat, no ride and no way home. However, Chief Zibolski says Lipps refused assistance following her release.
“Our detective did make attempts to arrange a ride home for Ms. Lipps and offered her some funds for a hotel room, which she refused, indicating that she had a ride,” Zibolski said.
He adds, they checked with the Cass County Jail, which has a winter clothing kit that they offer to any releasee.
“From their records, Ms. Lipps never made a request for any of those items, nor did she make any other requests upon release,” Zibolski explained to KFGO News.
Lipps’ GoFundMe has raised more than $35,000 as of Tuesday.
Police used facial recognition software and say the Artificial Intelligence system mistakenly flagged Lipps as a possible suspect. Zibolski says they are reviewing their investigative process, especially when AI is involved.
“We cannot solely rely on technology or AI as a sole reason to make an arrest or issue a charge, but we are looking at our processes to see if there are other things that we could do in the future going forward to better solidify this prior to bringing it forward.”
Zibolski says, while they did use AI, his detectives took other steps before bringing the case to the State’s Attorney for possible charges.
Though he believes his investigators did their due diligence, Zibolski recognized the unfortunate situation.
“This is something that anyone in the system tries to avoid, we don’t want to have someone who’s not in the suspect held for any length of time that’s anyway unreasonable, but the system does operate in this fashion,” Zibolski said.
Zibolski says a second person in the bank fraud case is already in custody.
Fargo city commissioners met in a closed Executive Session Monday afternoon to get advice from the city attorney about possible litigation.
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