Innocent Arizona grandmother arrested and hauled away to jail while gardening after being mistaken for fugitive
Penny McCarthy, 67, had been working in her front yard last March when six agents approached her with their guns drawn and arrested her.
The 67-year-old had been misidentified by the authorities as a 'Carole Rozak' and despite her desperate pleas she was taken in.
In a federal lawsuit filed June 10, McCarthy says she spent the next 24 hours in their custody as she begged with agents they had the wrong person.
According to the filing, McCarthy said she was fingerprinted and had her DNA taken before she was bused to a federal detention center in Florence.
McCarthy said in the filing that over the course of those 24 hours she was strip searched three times.
During a press conference in which she recalling the incident McCarthy started to cry and described to reporters how she is a survivor of domestic child abuse.
She said: 'I have to be strip searched by one woman for something I didn't do, and then I'm told I'm going to be detained.'
She filed her suit under the Fourth Amendment which protects citizens from unreasonable false arrests.
The filing says she has asked for compensatory and punitive damages against the US Marshals Service for their 'tortious and unconstitutional acts and omissions'.
She is also filing under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows people to sue the federal government when federal officers cause them harm.
McCarthy says she was kept in a 'cold cell' overnight before being back in court the next day for an identity hearing, the complaint adds.
Her attorneys said in the filing: 'Eventually the government confirmed that Penny's fingerprints and DNA do not match Rozak's and ended the proceedings.'
The judge released her after prosecutors asked for more time to get the results of her fingerprints and DNA.
The government then dismissed the case against her. She now says she fears being left alone and taking her dog for a walk.
McCarthy added that the psychological effects from the ordeal caused her to sell her home and move out of the state.
She said: 'I'm still afraid that one day I will be pulled over and again mistaken for a criminal.
'I'm suing because I don't want this to happen to anyone else. Unless someone is held responsible, someone else will go through this same nightmare.'
McCarthy spoke with ABC15 after the incident, telling the outlet: 'I truly felt like I was being kidnapped.'
Terrifying body camera video showed the moment she was arrested by rifle-wielding officers who barked commands at her.
The federal agents rolled up to McCarthy's Phoenix home with guns drawn and immediately told her to put her 'hands up!'.
'We have an arrest warrant,' a federal agent is heard saying on the video. 'For me?' McCarthy responded. 'Yes. For you,' the officer said.
'Who am I?' she asked, seemingly wanting the officers to confirm that she was in fact the person they were looking to apprehend.
Multiple agents can be heard in the clip screaming at her and giving her conflicting orders.
'Turn away. Turn around. Turn away. We'll discuss it later. Turn away. You're gonna get hit,' they said.
McCarthy is being represented by the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm, who specialize in cases involving abuses of power.
Senior Attorney Paul Avelar said: 'The officers' misidentifying Penny was inexcusable and violated state and federal law.
'To make matters worse, even if Penny had been the fugitive they were looking for, the officers' over-the-top display of force was uncalled for, given that the fugitive was wanted only for failing to check in with a probation officer after being released from prison twenty-five years ago for nonviolent crimes.'
Rozak, the woman agents said Penny was, was wanted for an outstanding parole violation from 1999.
All the crimes she served time for were non-violent in nature, but after her release, she failed to meet with any federal probation officer, according to records.
In a statement the US Marshals Service in Arizona said: 'The US Marshals Service acknowledges that Ms Penny McCarthy was mistakenly arrested.'
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