‘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 out of the blue 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 unsuitable on March 5, 2024, however she wasn’t certain what it was. Actually, she instructed ABC15, “I really 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 dwelling and confronting the proper particular person. All of this with weapons pointed at her and a number of aggressive U.S. Marshals.

“We’ve got an arrest warrant,” considered one 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, making an attempt to have them verify her id.

At that time, although, a number of brokers could 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 verify 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, “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 upset in my authorities, It is not humorous.”

After watching the video for the primary time, she mentioned, “It simply makes me extra offended 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 “focus on it later” together with her concerning her id. “They did nothing however deal with me like crap and deceive 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 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.

One month after her arrest, on April 4, 2024, ABC15 spoke with McCarthy, who offered intensive proof of her id — insisting that she is just not 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 beginning 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 received picked up at gunpoint in her entrance yard. And brought to jail,” McCarthy instructed the outlet on the time. “No person 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, exhibiting 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 night time in federal custody, which included being “strip searched thrice in entrance of all these individuals… 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 earnings 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 girl,” she mentioned.

A decide had beforehand arrange an id listening to for April 9 in federal courtroom for McCarthy (above left) to try to show she was not Rozak.

Sooner or later earlier than her scheduled id 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 mentioned investigators initially instructed her the prints have been a match for Rozak, however prosecutors instructed the decide the following day they did not have anybody accessible to research her prints.

“The U.S. Marshals Service has acquired affirmation from fingerprint evaluation that Ms. Penny McCarthy is just not 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 studies that the U.S. Marshals Service mentioned 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 mentioned in response. “It is a hell of a system.”