imagine this it's a peaceful Saturday morning the sun's shining the birds are chirping and 67-year-old grandmother Penny McCarthy is out in her driveway tending to her yard she's wearing a sleeveless shirt shorts and slippers completely unaware that her life is about to be changed forever police don't move hands up hands up turn around i said "Who are you?" He's like "You know who we are." In the blink of an eye Penny's peaceful day turns into a nightmare a team of US marshals jumps out of a vehicle surrounds her and points their rifles at her chest i've never been in trouble with the law i had absolutely no clue what this could remotely be about they're yelling at her they're threatening to harm her this grandmother who's never so much as gotten a speeding ticket is scared to death hey do you know who I am that's not who I am i can croo who I am you promise you're going to let me take care of my daughter and at their mercy there is nothing Penny could have done to have prevented this turn around turn away from the sound of my voice you have an arrest warrant turn away from the sound of my voice for me yes for you who am I turn away turn around disgusting turn away you're going to get hit they did not ask for her ID they didn't run a single check to confirm her identity do you want to confirm who I am put your hands behind your back put your Put your hands behind your back we'll discuss this later turn around and face away from me stop moving and stop looking back stop looking back can you prove you're the police ma'am you see that we're the police how do I see that ma'am we're going to get If you don't If you turn around again you're going to get taped you understand me instead they just handcuffed her shackled her ankles and tore her away from her home before she had a chance to even tell family members can I like if you're going to take me somewhere can I like There's no one in there but the dog can I like fix him can I fix my dog why because they thought she was somebody else someone named Carol Roseac a person that Penny had never even heard of at least not up until then they're like "You know who we are we know who you are." I'm like "Who am I?" Hey do you know who I am yes well you're going to sit around who are you carol Rosac that's not who I am i'm McCarthy yes yes but I've never been Carol Rosac i can prove who I am okay but her pleas fell on deaf ears the US marshals were sure they had the right person you promise you're going to let me take care of my dog and I have a gun thing yeah go ahead but they made a catastrophic mistake one that would cost Penny her dignity her sense of safety and her peace of mind no one showed me any badges i was never issued any Miranda rights i was never through this whole process allowed a phone call they chained me at my ankles and my waist and my hands to my waist she was transported over an hour away to a federal detention facility and locked in a freezing cell without a blanket over the next 24 hours this grandmother was strip searched three times and they do like a roll call and this lady says Caroline Rosac and I'm looking around and all the other girls go "That's you." And it's like "No it's not." We go into a room where there's 20 other women and the three of us are now being strip searched in front of 20 other women i keep saying "I was told I could make a phone call i was told I could make a phone call." And they're like "Well it's 11:00 now the phones are shut off but I've never been allowed to make a phone call nobody knows where I'm at." All the while she kept repeating the truth i'm Penny McCarthy not Carol Rosac but nobody listened except thankfully her public defender the next day she was hauled into court her public defender did believe her and so her public defender told the judge that she was not Carol Rosac the prosecutor asked for more time to check fingerprints and DNA the judge agreed setting a hearing for a month later but in the meantime releasing Penny i'm going to call you Ms mccarthy at this point so I am releasing you um from uh custody in the building and I'm not going to order you to present to pre-trial um services i am going to um and I'm not going to set release conditions but the nightmare was far from over the government eventually dismissed the case but the damage was done penny once a vibrant grandmother who loved to walk her dog now lives in fear she sold her home and left the state desperate to escape the trauma that she suffered that day and even now she's haunted by the idea that law enforcement could once again mistake her for Carol Rosac and again not listen to her please for help i don't want any part of it anymore i don't trust any government official or anybody anymore i raised five children to respect the law and now I feel stupid for doing that my fear is that they're going to pull me over one day and for whatever reason something happens and they're going to fingerprint me and all of a sudden I'm going to be Caroline Rosac and stuck someplace where nobody knows where I'm at the US Marshalss violated Penny's rights in every way imaginable they held her at gunpoint they frisked her they searched her they arrested her all without any legitimate reason to do so they arrested her without ever confirming her identity but I've never been Carol Rose i can prove who I am okay violating her Fourth Amendment protections the Fourth Amendment requires that when police officers arrest somebody on an arrest warrant they have to have a reasonable belief that the individual whom they are arresting is the same person named on the warrant it wasn't just a mistake it was a gross abuse of power but Penny isn't staying silent she has teamed up with the Institute for Justice to hold the officers in the US government accountable for their inexcusable constitutional violations i got a chance to talk about the case with Marie Miller an attorney with the Institute for Justice based out of their office in Phoenix Arizona did they actually think that Penny McCarthy was Carol Rose like living a double life it's unclear what's clear is that they didn't run even basic checks to make sure that Penny was Carol or some violent criminal carol Rosac as far as we know was not a violent criminal um but that's how they were treating Penny the officers had a 25-year-old warrant issued out of a court in Oklahoma for Carol Rosac failing to check in with a probation officer after she had been released from a federal prison in Texas for non-violent crimes do you have any idea what led them to Penny McCarthy we don't know all the steps that got them to Penny the only clue that we have is that Carol Rosac may have used the name Penny Burns at one time she apparently used a whole bunch of aliases and one of them was Penny Burns and Penny McCarthy's maiden name for the first 17 years of her life was Penny Burns u but so was a lot of other people's name she's not the only Penny Burns in in the country and she's not the and Penny Burns is not the only alias that that Rosac supposedly used um so there are thousands and thousands of people in the United States that are as connected to Carol Rosac as Penny was after they finally admitted that she was not Carol Roseac and released her and dismissed the criminal charges did anybody so much as apologized to Penny no no they've not apologized they haven't given her any answers um the closest they came was to say um this was an unfortunate inconvenience to Penny calling it an inconvenience is absurd i take it also if they didn't apologize they haven't offered any sort of compensation to her no they they've they've made a statement that it's it looks like their officers did everything fine do you know yet at this point and I assume you don't whether or not there has been any sort of internal discipline to the officers who made this mistake uh not from what we can tell uh we have no indication that anyone has been disciplined for this or that any policies procedures have changed as a result the Marshall Service has issued a statement essentially saying "Yeah the officers appeared to do everything just fine." By the way after Marie told me that that the US Marshall Service had said it was basically just an inconvenience and they had done everything properly I had to go find that statement for myself and I actually did find it and here it is they provided this statement to ABC15 in Arizona and it says that they received confirmation via fingerprint analysis that Penny McCarthy was not in fact the fugitive Carol Rosac but get this they said a preliminary review of this investigation indicates that US Marshall Service officials followed proper procedures in good faith reliance on the outstanding warrant the US Marshall Service will continue its evaluation of the investigation of this matter the US Marshall Service regrets any inconvenience caused by the mistaken identification of Miss McCarthy what's clear is that had anybody done even the most basic of checks on Penny Penny's background it would have been obvious that this is not Carol Rosac and they didn't even let Penny show them her driver's license she had a real ID at the time she had plenty of ways to show that she's not Carol Rosac and the officers just weren't interested but I've never been Carol Roseac i can prove who I am okay and it isn't just about justice for Penny it's about holding the government accountable so that something like this does not happen again to another innocent victim all they required was like a very tiny amount of investigative work and they refused to do it because they just don't care because there's there's no accountability no consequences right there is nothing Penny could have done to have prevented this she didn't do anything wrong and that she just couldn't have taken any other proactive measures to prevent this from happening so Penny did nothing wrong she was completely innocent whose decisions led to this outcome it was these federal law enforcement officers who chose the wrong person who didn't bother to investigate who didn't bother to listen it was their decisions that caused this woman harm there's no dispute that it is a fourth amendment violation for police officers to arrest somebody on a wrong warrant in a case of mistaken identity where those officers have no reasonable belief that it's the same person so why don't these officers seem concerned with following the Fourth Amendment well it's probably because they're federal law enforcement officers and it's almost impossible to sue them no consequences so they don't care that's why it's important that a national nonprofit law firm with a huge amount of resources has taken on this case not only to get justice for Penny but to take the case all the way up to the US Supreme Court if necessary in order to create new law good law that's going to change the present circumstances that we have where federal police officers can do whatever they want and you can't sue them without accountability without consequences government employees are just going to say "Well it's good enough for government work." Here look how disgraceful and pathetic and cowardly their actions were and not only doing a crappy job but aiming their weapons at and mistreating this elderly helpless woman they were actually charged by us to protect do you want to confirm who I am put your hands behind your back stop moving and stop looking back stop looking back if you don't if you turn around again you're going to get taped hey do you know who I am that's not who I am i can prove who I am you promise you're going to let me take care of my job shameful if the US Marshall Service is not going to discipline their own employees here you know they're not going to do it ever government officials must be held accountable when they violate constitutional rights and destroy innocent people's lives penny McCarthy's story is a wake-up call and a lesson for all of us but it's not too late because you can help by donating right now to the Institute for Justice using my custom donation link we all need to stay informed and keep fighting for justice together our rights don't end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it