‘Felt Like I Was Being Kidnapped’

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 all of the sudden confronted at her dwelling by six U.S. Marshals pointing rifles at her and telling her she’s beneath arrest.

McCarthy instantly knew one thing was mistaken on March 5, 2024, however she wasn’t positive what it was. Actually, she instructed 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 had been on the proper dwelling and confronting the appropriate individual. All of this with weapons pointed at her and plenty of aggressive U.S. Marshals.

“We have now an arrest warrant,” one in every of them tells her on the video.

“For me?” she replies, to which the officer responds, “Sure. For you.”

“Who am I?” she then asks, trying to have them affirm her id.

At that time, although, a number of brokers will be heard shouting at her issues like. “Flip away.” “Flip round.” “We’ll talk about 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 wish to affirm who I’m?”

The agent trying to apprehend her responds, “Put your hand behind your again. We’ll talk about that later.”

At one other level, an agent tells her, “For those who flip round once more, you are getting tased. You perceive me.”

Talking with ABC15 in regards to the terrifying incident, McCarthy mentioned, “I’m so disillusioned in my authorities, It isn’t humorous.”

After watching the video for the primary time, she mentioned, “It simply makes me extra indignant than earlier than.” She referred to as what she witnessed on the video an “abuse of energy. Interval.”

She additionally instructed ABC15 that regardless of what’s heard on the video, federal brokers by no means did “talk about it later” together with her relating to her id. “They did nothing however deal with me like crap and mislead me.”

Federal brokers did inform her who they thought she was after that they had her in handcuffs.

On the time she was arrested and detained, federal brokers had been insisting she was Carole Anne Rozak, a 70-year-old fugitive from Oklahoma. Rozek had served jail time for non-violent crimes, however did not report back to her probation officers after her launch.

One month after her arrest, on April 4, 2024, ABC15 spoke with McCarthy, who supplied intensive proof of her id — insisting that she isn’t and has by no means been Carole Anne Rozak — to the information outlet. On the time, federal authorities had been nonetheless satisfied she was.

Amongst that proof was her California delivery 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 acquired picked up at gunpoint in her entrance yard. And brought to jail,” McCarthy instructed the outlet on the time. “No one believes it.”

She additional mentioned that brokers apparently IDed her by her Fb image.

She detailed on the time that officers “proceeded to chain my ankles, chained my wrists, put me at the back of a automotive and after I requested for why I used to be beneath arrest they mentioned a parole violation.” She was launched the next day pending an id listening to.

McCarthy mentioned her daughter and sister each tried to confirm her id with authorities, displaying brokers household pictures going again years. “It virtually makes my mind cease working to consider the extent of injustice concerned right here,” her daughter Patricia Huffman instructed 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 id, as her daughter famous that her mom’s mounted revenue meant hiring a lawyer to struggle this was out of the query. The outlet in contrast a 1999 mugshot of Rozek to the Fb image brokers used to arrest McCarthy.

“I do not seem like this woman,” she mentioned.

A choose had beforehand arrange an id listening to for April 9 in federal court docket for McCarthy (above left) to aim to show she was not Rozak.

Someday earlier than her scheduled id listening to, an Arizona federal choose 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 mentioned investigators initially instructed her the prints had been a match for Rozak, however prosecutors instructed the choose the following day they did not have anybody out there to research her prints.

“The U.S. Marshals Service has acquired affirmation from fingerprint evaluation that Ms. Penny McCarthy isn’t the fugitive Carole Anne Rozak, needed for an excellent parole violation warrant in Oklahoma,” the company mentioned 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 mentioned a preliminary evaluate 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 isn’t proper,” McCarthy mentioned in response. “It is a hell of a system.”