PHOENIX — A dramatic video highlights a significant error by U.S. Marshals when they moved in to falsely arrest a Valley grandmother at gunpoint earlier this year.
The two-minute video captures the moment six U.S. Marshals armed with rifles falsely arrested 66-year-old Penny McCarthy.
“Ever since this happened. Sorry, I am so disappointed in my government. It’s not funny,” Penny told ABC15 while holding back tears.
It took the federal government more than six months to publicly release the body camera video.
“We have an arrest warrant,” a federal agent says on the video.
“For me?” responds Penny.
“Yes. For you,” the officer says.
“Who am I?” asks Penny.
Multiple agents then yell at Penny, “Turn away. Turn around. Turn away. We’ll discuss it later. Turn away. You’re gonna get hit.”
Penny had no idea why federal agents were there or how they could have a warrant for her arrest.
“I truly felt like I was being kidnapped,” Penny told ABC15 in response to what happened.
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ABC15 obtained the videos through a federal Freedom of Information ACT request.
“You don’t want to confirm who I am?” Penny asks officers again on the body camera video.
The officer responds by yelling back, “Put your hands behind your back. We’ll discuss that later.”
“It just makes me more angry than before,” Penny said in an interview with ABC15 after watching the video.
Federal agents insisted McCarthy was wanted Oklahoma fugitive Carole Anne Rozak, 70, when they arrested and detained her in March. The U.S. Marshals Service later admitted it made a mistake days after ABC15’s Investigation.
Who is Carole Anne Rozak?
An Arizona federal judge later dismissed the case against McCarthy and canceled her pending identity hearing.
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.
McCarthy provided extensive documentation to ABC15 she was not Rozak, the Oklahoma wanted fugitive.
“I’ve never been Carole Anne Rozak”
ABC15 showed the body camera videos to Penny who described them as showing, “Abuse of power. Period.”
Despite Penny asking officers multiple times if they wanted to confirm her identity and being told they would discuss it later, Penny said they never discussed it later.
“Never discussed it later,” Penny said.
“If you turn around again. You’re getting tased. You understand me,” a federal agent later told Penny on the body camera video.
“They did nothing but treat me like crap and lie to me,” Penny said in response to the video.
It’s not until Penny is in handcuffs, U.S. Marshals finally tell her who they think they’re arresting – wanted fugitive Carole Anne Rozak.
Former federal prosecutor reviews body camera video
Josh Kolsrud is a criminal defense attorney with years of experience as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“This case is concerning because of the manner in which Miss McCarthy was arrested,” he said. “A textbook example of federal agencies not doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”
ABC15 asked Kolsrud to review the videos and evidence in Penny’s case.
“It’s stunning to watch,” Kolsrud said. “And it’s scary that this can happen in America.”
Koslrud believes the videos show Phoenix U.S. Marshals used excessive force.
“Anybody watching this video can see that this was an aggressive arrest and aggressive apprehension,” he said. “And it’s unreasonable on so many levels.”
Koslrud also called into question how federal agents made the arrest before fully verifying Penny’s identity.
“We expect law enforcement to have the capability and determination and the ethics to establish who somebody is when they arrest them. And in this case, they didn’t do that,” he said.
U.S. Marshals response
ABC15 asked the U.S. Marshals multiple times for their perspective on the body camera videos, but the agency did not respond by our deadline.
In a previous statement, the agency said, “USMS continues to conduct a thorough review of actions taken by Deputy US Marshals regarding the fugitive investigation of Carole Anne Rozak and subsequent mistaken arrest of Penny McCarthy.”
But the federal government has yet to provide an update on the status of that review.
The only public accountability ABC15 has found regarding the clear disconnect between Penny and Carole comes from a court audio recording a day after she’s detained when a federal judge also questions why Penny was arrested.
The federal prosecutor said her arrest was strictly based on information from the probation office in Tulsa, Oklahoma including “Facebook postings” … “information from the pre-sentence report that was generated in 1999” … and … “some aliases.”
Evidence that wasn’t sufficient to move forward with a hearing.
At her initial court appearance, the judge released McCarthy pending an identity hearing where she was going to have to prove she wasn’t Rozak. The case was dismissed before that hearing ever happened.
Fingerprint analysis in question
As we’ve previously reported, McCarthy was fingerprinted when federal officers first took her into custody in Arizona.
The U.S. Marshal Service in Oklahoma, where the cold case investigation that led to McCarthy’s arrest was conducted, originally said there was some kind of “glitch” that appeared, at first, to show McCarthy’s digital fingerprints matched.
The federal prosecutor told a different story during her initial court appearance a day after McCarthy’s arrest, according to the audio recording.
A full fingerprint analysis confirmed what Penny knew all along. Her fingerprints were not a match to Rozak’s and federal agents arrested and detained the wrong person.
“The U.S. marshals are above the law. That's what it says to me. And the United States government allows that to happen,” Penny said.
The whole ordeal has made Penny question the government’s power and lack of accountability.
“It’s a hell of a system,” she said.
