In a shocking incident, a 66-year-old Arizona woman was mistakenly arrested by US Marshals who believed she was a fugitive who had violated her probation 25 years ago. The woman, Penny McCarthy, was at her home near Phoenix on March 5 when a group of individuals claiming to be US Marshals arrived, brandishing heavy firearms and announcing her arrest.
McCarthy, taken aback, requested the officers to confirm her identity, but her pleas were met with refusal and demands for her surrender. The officers did not provide any identification or warrant until McCarthy allowed herself to be handcuffed. The bodycam footage of the arrest, obtained by ABC 15, shows McCarthy questioning the officers’ identity and being threatened with a taser if she turned around again.
The officers insisted that McCarthy was Carole Anne Rozak, a 70-year-old woman from Oklahoma who had violated her probation in 1999 after being convicted of a series of non-violent crimes. Despite McCarthy’s denial and her offer to prove her identity, the US Marshals took her into custody.
McCarthy spent a night in federal prison before being released the following day. The evidence presented against her consisted of Facebook posts that an Oklahoma probation office believed indicated she was Rozak living under an alias. Her case was dismissed shortly after her release.
The US Marshals in Oklahoma later admitted that a fingerprinting error had led to McCarthy being mistakenly identified as Rozak. A month after the arrest, they confirmed that McCarthy was not the suspect they were seeking. The agency stated that they were conducting a thorough review of the arrest and the officers’ actions.
The incident has left McCarthy traumatized, to the point where she is hesitant to venture into her own front yard without the company of someone she knows. She expressed her disappointment in the government, stating that the incident made her feel as though the US Marshals were above the law.