Penny McCarthy’s life changed in less than two minutes on March 5, 2024.

The Phoenix grandmother was outside doing yardwork when a team of U.S. marshals arrived in unmarked vehicles and jumped out with weapons drawn.

McCarthy had done nothing illegal or suspicious. But the marshals accused her of being Carole Anne Rozak, a fugitive wanted for a 25-year-old parole violation for a nonviolent crime.

McCarthy had no connection to Rozak, but the marshals refused to listen or check her ID.

“Turn away or you’re going to get hit,” one marshal screams on bodycam video.

The next thing McCarthy knew, she was shackled and handcuffed in the back of a van. She feared the worst when the vehicle stopped behind a nearby grocery store.

“My first thought was: ‘I have just been compliant in my own kidnapping. I am going to die,’” she said.

After changing where they were seated, the marshals proceeded to a federal courthouse. The next 24 hours were tense. Officers collected a DNA sample from McCarthy, snapped her mugshot, took her fingerprints and strip-searched her. Then they took her by bus more than one hour away to a federal detention........

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