A 66-year-old grandmother was handcuffed at gunpoint by US marshals in a case of mistaken identity, bodycam footage has revealed. Penny McCarthy was arrested outside her home in Arizona in March 2023 after federal agents confused her with a different woman wanted for a parole violation.
The footage shows armed officers in bullet-proof vests screaming at McCarthy to put her hands up, threatening to Taser her if she turned around. Despite repeatedly asking officers to confirm her identity, she was ignored until she was in handcuffs, when she was told she was being arrested as Carole Anne Rozak.
McCarthy, who is not Rozak, offered to provide proof of her identity but was still placed in the back of a police van. The US Marshal Service later acknowledged that a “glitch” led them to believe her digital fingerprints matched Rozak’s, but this was later debunked. The false identification was based on Facebook postings and aliases.
A federal judge dismissed the case against McCarthy, but she had already spent time in prison over the mix-up. The USMS said it is conducting a thorough review of the incident. McCarthy told ABC15 she is “disappointed in my government” and feels the marshals treated her “like crap” and lied to her.
