‘Don’t You Want To Confirm Who I Am?’ a Mistakenly Arrested Grandmother Asked the Marshals. They Did Not.

Penny McCarthy is not now, and has never been, Carole Rozak. Yet in March 2024, half a dozen U.S. marshals accosted McCarthy in the front yard of her Phoenix home, insisting that she was Rozak, who was wanted on a warrant for failing to comply with parole conditions after she was released from a Texas prison in 1999. McCarthy, a 66-year-old grandmother with no criminal record, was bewildered by the sudden assault, especially because the marshals were in plain clothes and driving unmarked cars, which made her wonder if they were even cops at all. She insisted, again and again, that she was not Rozak. But the marshals refused to entertain the possibility that they had made a mistake—one that could have been easily corrected by examining readily available documentation of McCarthy’s identity.

That bizarre episode is at the center of a civil rights lawsuit that McCarthy filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The misidentification of McCarthy “was inexcusable and violated state and federal law,” says Institute for Justice senior attorney Paul Avelar, who represents McCarthy. “To make matters worse, even if Penny had been the fugitive they were looking for, the officers’ over-the-top display of force was uncalled for, given that the fugitive was wanted only for failing to check in with a probation officer after being released from prison twenty-five years ago for nonviolent crimes.”

Rozak’s crimes included bank fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, and making a false statement to a financial institution. She had no record of criminal activity since 1997. Yet the marshals treated McCarthy like a violent felon. They pointed guns at her, barked confusing commands, threatened to tase her, handcuffed her, and frisked her. She was detained for more than 24 hours, which included three humiliating strip searches and a sleepless overnight stay in a chilly, uncomfortable, and unsanitary cell.

At McCarthy’s first appearance before a judge, her public defender reiterated that McCarthy was not Rozak, which an assistant U.S. attorney conceded was possible. In light of the uncertainty, the judge released McCarthy pending an identity hearing, which proved unnecessary after fingerprint and DNA comparisons confirmed what she had been saying all along.

As a result of that terrifying ordeal, McCarthy sold her house and moved out of Arizona, where she had been living for less than a year. According to her lawsuit, she “fears future humiliation and law-enforcement errors resulting from her blundered arrest and continued detention.” She “no longer feels safe and comfortable at home,” “rarely walks her dog for fear that she will again be wrongfully apprehended,” and “fears that she will again be misidentified and arrested while out running errands.” She has trouble sleeping and is “afraid to be by herself,” even “in her own front yard.”

McCarthy’s anxiety is not just understandable but rational in light of the egregious carelessness that led to her arrest and imprisonment. She resembles Rozak only in very broad ways: Both are white women older than 65. But McCarthy is four years younger than Rozak. She is a U.S. citizen who was born and raised in California, while Rozak is Canadian. Rozak has lived in Canada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas, places where McCarthy had never resided at the time of her arrest.

McCarthy has blue eyes, while Rozak’s eyes are green. The warrant for Rozak did not describe any “scars, tattoos, or distinguishing marks.” McCarthy has a hysterectomy scar across her abdomen and a unique tattoo on her right shoulder that she designed herself.

McCarthy’s social security number, issued by the U.S. government, is complete

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