20 hours Ago By Jennifer Kovaleski
PHOENIX — The Department of Justice is actively investigating after armed federal agents wrongfully arrested then 66-year-old Penny McCarthy outside her Phoenix home in March. Penny said a special agent with the Office of the Inspector General interviewed her for more than an hour last week and asked basic questions about what happened. This is the first step in what U.
S. lawmakers have said will be a lengthy process. Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) signed a letter, asking for the formal Department of Justice Investigation last month .
“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 investigation s 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.
” 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. “She asks, ‘I think you got the wrong person.
’ They threatened to tase her, and they detain her for 24 hours. And of course, they got the wrong individual,” Jordan said. 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 they were wrong.
ABC15 is committed to finding the answers you need and holding those accountable. Submit your news tip to [email protected] The lawmakers’ letter to the inspector general said, “We are very concerned at both the USMS’s carelessness and the excessive force during this encounter,” the letter says.
“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. Penny said she is thrilled with the letter in an interview with ABC15 earlier this month.
“I love how it was written. I love the truth behind it,” she said. But what happened back in March 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 eight months, the ABC15 Investigators have aired a half dozen reports exposing mistakes by the federal government in this case. A day after ABC15’s first investigation aired in April , prosecutors dropped the case against Penny.
A federal court audio recording from the day Penny was detained later showed even the judge questioned why Penny was arrested. Just minutes into Penny’s initial court appearance, the federal magistrate judge asked the prosecutor, "I'd like to know why, um, this person was arrested as Ms. Rozak?" Assistant U.
S. Attorney Kevin Rapp responded, “That's a fair question. Um, and one I had .
.. is that I've been provided some documents, um, some open-source documents that suggest that the person that they found was Carole Anne Rozak.
” A full fingerprint analysis would confirm what Penny knew all along: Her fingerprints weren’t a match. “There was no innocent until proven guilty in this,” she said. Biggs credits ABC15’s reporting for bringing the mistaken identity to light.
“The fact that you guys were reporting on this actually brought it to our attention. and if you hadn't reported on it, it likely would have gone, without notice of myself and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Jordan,” Biggs said.
After lawmakers sent their letter to the DOJ, which also included, “The USMS only admitted its misidentification after a local news channel conducted a thorough investigation.” Biggs also said he recently spoke with the U.S.
Marshal Service. “They welcomed an investigation. They also want to get to the bottom of it.
They have questions as well,” Biggs said. “We’ve got to tighten this ship. I mean, this can’t go on.
” Eight months after Penny was wrongfully placed in handcuffs and detained in federal custody, she said she wants U.S. lawmakers and the Department of Justice to shine a light on what happened to her.
“It certainly gives me hope compared to everybody else telling me that you just can’t touch these people,” Penny said in a previous interview. A spokeswoman for the Office of the Inspector General 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.” The Marshals Service also said it regrets any inconvenience caused to Ms.
McCarthy by her arrest and it remains committed to lessening similar incidents in the future. The DOJ Inspector General has exclusive authority to investigate this kind of alleged misconduct. Biggs said it could take six months to a year to complete.
Both lawmakers are asking the DOJ for findings and recommendations in their letter, and this could lead to a hearing on Capitol Hill. “If it weren't for ABC 15 listening to me, I would have gotten nowhere,” Penny said. Have a tip for the ABC15 Investigators? Email Investigator Jennifer Kovaleski at jennifer.
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