House panel demands probe into US Marshals’ arrest of grandma mistaken for fugitive: ‘Carelessness and excessive force’
The House Judiciary Committee is seeking an investigation into the US Marshals Service over their botched arrest of an Arizona grandmother who was mistaken for a non-violent fugitive and detained in an aggressive, guns-drawn raid, The Post has learned.
Leaders of the House panel sent a letter to the Department of Justice requesting a probe into the arrest of Penny McCarthy, who spent a night in federal prison after agents refused to let her prove her identity during the frightening March 5 ordeal.
“It appears the USMS violated Ms. McCarthy’s constitutional rights during the arrest,” Reps. Jim Jordan (R – OH) and Andy Briggs (R – AZ) wrote in a letter obtained by The Post to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz Monday.
McCarthy, 66, was minding her business outside her Phoenix-area home when a van sped up and unloaded a cadre of heavily armed US Marshals agents who pointed assault rifles at her and demanded that she give herself up.
Bodycam footage obtained by ABC 15 captured the entire altercation, with a clearly baffled McCarthy calmly pleading with the yelling agents to not only give her a chance to identify herself — but also to provide basic identification proving they were with the government.
“You see that we’re the police,” an officer replied, and when McCarthy asked how she could see that, they threatened to stun her with a taser gun.
“If you turn around again, you’re gonna get tased,” an officer yelled at her.
McCarthy begged the officers to just “tell me who I am,” but they refused to name who they were looking for unless she let herself be cuffed.
“After six agents surprised Ms. McCarthy at her home screaming at her to ‘get her hands up,’ she understandably asked if they had the right individual. At that point, the USMS agents screamed at her to ‘turn around,’ threatening her ‘you’re going to get hit,'” the Judiciary Committee letter read.
Officers eventually revealed they were looking for a 70-year-old Oklahoma woman named Carole Anne Rozak, who ran out on her parole in 1999 after serving time for a series of non-violent crimes — and were convinced McCarthy was her and masquerading under an alias.
McCarthy said she could prove she was not Rozak, but the Marshals refused to give her the chance and instead carted her off for a night behind bars.
She was released the next day after a judge found prosecutors’ evidence — Facebook photos of McCarthy that an Oklahoma probation officer thought might look like a 25-years-older Rozak — was insufficient.
The US Marshalls later claimed that a fingerprinting “glitch” had matched McCarthy to Rozak, and about a month later admitted they had the wrong person — but only after ABC 15 ran an investigation into the case.
“Although the USMS claims it is conducting a review of the actions taken by their agents,13 an internal review is not enough,” Reps. Jordan and Briggs wrote.
“We are very concerned at both the USMS’s carelessness and the excessive force during this encounter. The USMS’s lack of regard for Ms. McCarthy’s due process rights is very troubling and oversight is necessary to ensure similar abuses do not happen in the future,” they added.
The US Marshals did not respond to requests for comment.
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