PHOENIX — The Office of the Inspector General under the Department of Justice continues to investigate the false arrest of then 66-year-old Penny McCarthy byU.S. Marshals outside her Phoenix home last year.
“The Office of the Inspector General, OIG, is the boogeyman of federal agents,” said former federal prosecutor Josh Kolsrud.
Kolsrud now works as a criminal defense attorney and has represented clients at the center of OIG investigations.
He explained what’s likely next as the investigation into McCarthy’s wild case of mistaken identity continues. He also detailed the power behind this federal probe.
“Anybody under the umbrella of the Department of Justice, including the U.S. Marshals Office is afraid of OIG,” Kolsrud said.
McCarthy said a special agent with the Office of the Inspector General interviewed her in late December, more than two months ago and asked her basic questions about what happened.
“What they want to do is get to the bottom of what happened and why these agents acted in a certain way, or why they didn’t act in a certain way,” he said.
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The DOJ Inspector General reports to the Attorney General and Congress. According to its website, the agency’s mission is to “detect waste, fraud, abuse and misconduct.” Its investigations can be criminal or administrative.
“Once OIG gets involved, they will have access to all the records, whether it's confidential or not. They have top secret security clearance,” said Kolsrud.
U.S. Lawmakers demanded investigation
Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) signed a letter, asking for the formal Department of Justice Investigation last November.
“We want the investigation. We want to get to the facts and figure out how they screwed up so bad,” Jordan said in a previous interview with ABC15.
Both lawmakers wrote the letter to the inspector general in direct response to ABC15’s series of investigations and after it took the federal government six months to publicly release the body camera video of Penny’s arrest.
“We want to get to the bottom of it,” Biggs said. “Because what happened to Mrs. McCarthy is something that really shouldn’t happen to anybody.”
Body camera video shows arrest
The body camera video shows six armed U.S. Marshals falsely arresting Penny.
“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.”
“If you turn around again. You’re getting tased. You understand me,” a federal agent later told Penny on the body camera video.
“The facts of this case are very troubling,” said Kolsrud.
U.S. Marshals arrested the wrong person
Court records show U.S. Marshals thought Penny was a wanted fugitive out of Oklahoma, by the name of Carole Anne Rozak, who had violated her parole on a two-decade old warrant for non-violent crimes. But U.S. Marshals later admitted they made a mistake.
Penny said she is thrilled with the letter in an interview with ABC15 late last year.
“I love how it was written. I love the truth behind it,” she said.
But what happened still impacts Penny.
“I want to go back to believing in the America I believed in before this happened. I want that, I want what I’ve raised and taught my kids to believe is true. Sorry,” she said while holding back tears. “I just don’t know if I do anymore.”
During the past ten months, the ABC15 Investigators have aired more than a half dozen reports exposing mistakes by the federal government in this case.
A spokeswoman for the Office of the Inspector General has said, “It is our general practice not to confirm or deny the existence of any ongoing investigation.”
“The US Marshals Service acknowledges that Ms. Penny McCarthy was mistakenly arrested," the agency said in a previous statement. “The USMS does not comment on personnel matters or administrative investigations.”
What’s next in the investigation
Lawmakers have said the investigation into McCarthy’s arrest could take up to a year and the findings are expected to be posted online once complete, which is a standard practice for the agency.
“I would expect that there will be an internal investigation and there will be some administrative punishments,” said Kolsrud.
McCarthy said she continues to have contact with the DOJ OIG’s office, and it does not appear President Trump’s changes within the Justice Department have impacted the investigation.
President Trump fired more than a dozen Inspectors General during his first week in office, according to ABC News. Several of those former Inspector Generals are suing the administration, but according to those reports, President Trump has not fired the DOJ Inspector General who is in charge of the agency overseeing the investigation into McCarthy’s false arrest.
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