Granny Arrested, Strip Searched in ID Mix-Up Suing Feds| Crime Alert 8PM 06.12.2025

A granny who was gardening in her front yard is suddenly cuffed by gun-toting U.S Marshalls, stuffed in a jail cell and strip searched in a case of mistaken identity. She's now suing the feds for the fugitive faux pas. 

Harvey Weinstein dodges another rape conviction... thanks to jury drama. Plus, a not so hot pursuit in South Carolina!  Jennifer Gould reports. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alart hourly update, breaking crime news Now, I'm Jennifer Gould.
It was a grandmother's worst knife mare that spiraled into
a terrifying ordeal for a sixty seven year old grandmother.
Kenny McCarthy was simply tending to her roses in her
Phoenix front yard in March of twenty twenty four when
six US Marshals rifles drawn swarmed her property, mistaking her

(00:26):
for a fugitive, in a jaw dropping blunder that landed
her in jail and now in a federal lawsuit. McCarthy
is suing the US Marshal Service for assault, battery, false arrest,
and constitutional violations after a traumatic twenty four hour nightmare
that left her fearing for her life. McCarthy has now

(00:48):
relocated from Arizona and says she remains haunted by the ordeal,
constantly fearing another wrongful arrest. She spoke to ABC fifteen News.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm mad, I'm hurt all of a sudden, I'm on antidepressants,
I'm on medicine to sleep at night, all because somebody
didn't do their job right in the government.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
The Marshalls believed McCarthy was Carol Ann Rozack, a seventy
year old Oklahoma fugitive wanted for a nineteen ninety nine
parole violation tied to nonviolent crimes. Bodycam footage from the
terrifying encounter captures the chaos. Agents were caught barking commands
as a bewildered McCarthy repeatedly pleaded, it was a mistake.

(01:35):
Take a listen. The other rest warrant turned yes for you.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Who am I away? Turn away?

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Gonna get hit. McCarthy was handcuffed and hauled away from
her home without any answers. Taken to a federal detention
center in Florence, Arizona, McCarthy was subjected to unimaginable humiliation.
She endured not one, but three invasive strip searches, and
had her fingerprints taken and DNA collected, and spent a sleepless,

(02:06):
frigid night in a cold cell, desperately insisting she wasn't Rozak.
While investigators initially claimed McCarthy's fingerprints matched the fugitives, further
analysis quickly proved they didn't, leading to her eventual release.
Prosecutors later admitted they hadn't even had an analyst available
to verify the Prince when she was first arrested. The

(02:29):
entire case was dismissed in April of twenty twenty four
after prosecutors admitted they had insufficient evidence, relying only on
flimsy Facebook posts and aliases to pursue the original warrant.
Represented by the Institute for Justice, McCarthy's lawsuit demands both
compensatory and punitive damages. The seventy nine page lawsuit alleges

(02:53):
the marshals failed to run basic checks to confirm macarthy's ID,
including checking her photo ID her driver's license. While the
Marshal's Service acknowledged the mistake, they have offered no formal
apology for the egregious error. The Department of Justice's Inspector
General is now investigating the incident, spurred by demands from

(03:14):
the House Judiciary Committee. The investigation is expected to conclude
by mid twenty twenty five. More crime and Justice news
after this. It was an absolute meltdown in the jury
room that saved Harvey Weinstein from another rape conviction. The
disgraced Hollywood heavyweight just dodged a bullet after a Manhattan

(03:38):
judge declared a mistrial on a third degree rape charge
in his high stakes New York retrial, capping weeks of
explosive testimony and courtroom drama that left jurors screaming at
each other. The bombshell ruling came after the jury foreman
flat out refused to return for deliberations, citing safety fears

(04:00):
due to alleged threats from fellow jurors. This dramatic collapse
leaves the former mogul's face on the Jessica Man rape
charge from twenty thirteen unresolved, though prosecutors are already vowing
to retry him. Despite the chaos, the seventy three year
old predator still faced a reckoning. He was convicted of

(04:20):
a first degree criminal sexual act against former production assistant
Miriam Haley, stemming from a two thousand and six incident. However,
he was acquitted of another similar charge against a former
model from the same year. Just days before the verdict,
A remarkably composed Weinstein made a stunning admission in a

(04:40):
June sixth Good Day New York interview. Take a listen, Hi,
every threats that I.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Put my family through, this that I acted in Marley
write actions.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
That were stupid, never illegal, never criminal. This defiant stance
fueled fresh outrage among the more than one hundred women
who have accused him of sexual misconduct since twenty seventeen.
The split verdict and mistrial followed six grueling weeks of testimony.
Prosecutors painted Weinstein as a cunning, serial abuser who lured

(05:12):
women with false career promises, while his defense argued all
encounters were consensual. The jury's collapse was anything but quiet.
Reports emerged of days filled with yelling and screaming, with
one juror allegedly threatening another quote I'll see you outside
end quote. Judge Curtis Farber had no choice but to
declare the mistrial when the terrified four person refused to

(05:36):
deliberate further, dismissing the remaining jurors. Weinstein, whose twenty twenty
New York conviction and twenty three year sentence were notoriously
overturned in twenty twenty four for judicial bias, now faces
up to twenty five years for the Hailey conviction, with
sentencing pending. A third degree rape conviction could have added

(05:57):
another four years. He is also currently serving a sixteen
year sentence in Los Angeles for a separate twenty twenty
two rape conviction, which is also under appeal. And finally,
it was a not so hot pursuit that you could
literally walk faster than cops in North Charleston, South Carolina
found themselves and one of the most bizarre chases ever.

(06:20):
This was not your average high speed drama. It was
a tractor excavator leading police on a snail's pace crawl,
barely hitting three miles per hour. Officers first spotted the
heavy equipment lumbering across the highway around three thirty in
the morning. Minutes later, a nearby business reported heavy damage
from a burglary guess who was slowly making a getaway.

(06:44):
Our culprit, still behind the controls of the digger. Squad
cars joined the absurd pursuit, blue lights flashing and sirens wailing,
but had to repeatedly hit the brakes to avoid passing
this slow moving suspect. After an hour and twelve agonizing minutes,
the construction culprit finally got stuck at the fairgrounds. He

(07:07):
tried to make a run for it, which was a
whole lot faster, but a drone tracked him down and
then a canine unit cornered him. He is now out
on a twenty two thousand dollars bond. Looks like this
driver's fast getaway plan truly hit a major roadblock. For
the latest crime and justice news, follow the Crime Alert
hourly update on your favorite podcast app with this crime Alert,

(07:29):
I'm Jennifer King.