PHOENIX — Federal agents now admit they made a mistake, and the fingerprints don’t match, after an ABC15 Investigation into the false arrest of a Phoenix woman outside her home last month.
“The U.S. Marshals Service has received confirmation from fingerprint analysis that Ms. Penny McCarthy is not the fugitive Carole Anne Rozak, wanted for an outstanding parole violation warrant in Oklahoma,” the agency said in a statement.
McCarthy said their admission won’t stop her quest for justice.
“I want somebody to hold these people accountable. I want this to not happen to more people,” McCarthy said.
An Arizona federal judge on Monday dismissed the case against McCarthy and canceled her court hearing days after an ABC15 Investigation into her wild case of mistaken identity.
ABC15 contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Marshal Service to find out what caused the federal government to make such a major mistake and wrongfully arrest a 66-year-old woman at gunpoint.
Multiple federal agencies in different states have done a lot of finger-pointing, but 48 hours after a judge dismissed the case, the U.S. Marshal Service provided a statement. However, the statement does not answer key questions.
The U.S. Marshals Service said a preliminary review found federal officials followed proper procedures in “good-faith reliance on the outstanding warrant” and “regrets any inconvenience caused by the mistaken identification of Ms. McCarthy,” according to the statement.
“We're sorry that happened. Have a nice day. Really? It's not right,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy’s wild case of mistaken identity
According to McCarthy, six federal agents arrested her at gunpoint outside her Phoenix home in March. She said officers threatened to tase her when she tried to tell them they had the wrong person.
McCarthy was then transported to prison in Florence and had to spend a night in federal custody before a judge released her, the following day, pending an identity hearing.
“They've traumatized me. I don't go to my front yard unless somebody is here with me. I try not to go anyplace alone anymore,” she said.
At the identity hearing, originally scheduled for April 9, McCarthy was going to have to prove she wasn’t Carole Anne Rozak, a wanted fugitive from another state she’d never lived in.
“I'm a mom. I've told my children their whole life, own your errors. And I would love for somebody to own their errors. I no longer have faith in the government that anybody's going to say this is wrong,” McCarthy said.
Federal agents claimed McCarthy was Rozak, a now 70-year-old woman, who was wanted on an outstanding parole violation warrant from 1999 out of Oklahoma. Rozak served prison time for all non-violent crimes. But according to federal court records, she failed to report to any federal probation officer after she was released from federal custody in Harris County, Texas.
A warrant for her arrest was issued on April 15, 1999, in Oklahoma, and ABC15 has learned McCarthy’s false arrest all stems from the two-decades-old outstanding warrant.
Fingerprint analysis in question
As we’ve previously reported, McCarthy was fingerprinted when federal officers first took her into custody in Arizona last month.
The U.S. Marshal Service in Oklahoma, where the cold case investigation that led to McCarthy’s arrest was conducted, said there was some kind of glitch which appeared, at first, to show McCarthy’s digital fingerprints matched.
The agency has since confirmed a more thorough analysis showed the prints aren’t a match and McCarthy is not Rozak, the wanted fugitive.
McCarthy also said investigators initially said her fingerprints matched, but the story changed the following day in court when prosecutors told the judge they didn’t have anyone to analyze her prints.
“I no longer trust the people who govern me,” she said.
ABC15 continues to press for answers as to how something like that even happens.
Oklahoma court filings provide new details
According to a recently filed federal court motion in Oklahoma, “Rozak had stolen Penny Burns's identity in a way that made Penny Burns look like Rozak on paper.”
McCarthy said Burns is her maiden name, but no one will provide any specific information about what exactly linked McCarthy to Rozak leading federal agents to arrest the wrong person. Other than there was a Facebook post and c-section scar, which appeared to match.
When asked what she would want to say to the real Carole Anne Rozak, McCarthy said, “That I’m looking for her. I’m probably looking for her harder than they are at this point… because I would like nothing better than to show them that I can do their job better than them.”
The U.S. Marshals Service has denied multiple requests for an on-camera interview.
We will continue to follow this story and report updates as they become available.
Have a tip for the ABC15 Investigators? Email Investigator Jennifer Kovaleski at jennifer.kovaleski@abc15.com.
