LISTEN: Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski’s conversation with The Flag’s Scott Hennen
FARGO, N.D. – Despite charges being dropped by the Cass County State’s Attorney’s Office, Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski said in an exclusive interview with Flag Family Media he doesn’t know definitively what, if any, involvement Angela Lipps had in a Fargo bank fraud investigation.
The department used facial recognition as part of its investigation to allege Lipps committed the crime. She said she’s never been to North Dakota.
“This wasn’t on anyone’s radar until the last week-and-a-half, two weeks. I had no knowledge of this whatsoever that this occurred. As soon as we got the first couple of inquiries, I sent it to our investigative unit captain for response. As would be our typical response, it’s an ongoing investigation and we can’t talk about it,” Zibolski said.
The charges against Lipps were dismissed without prejudice meaning they could be refiled against her in the future. Zibolski said Fargo Police continues its investigation into the case.
“We take constitutional rights and due process of our community members very seriously,” Zibolski said.
Chief Zibolski tried to clear up questions from the community in this case regarding why Lipps was in jail for so long before being interviewed by detectives and why she left the Cass County Jail without winter clothing.
Zibolski said Lipps was arrested on July 14, 2025 and she also was held on a local charge unrelated to the Fargo case. He added the Cass County State’s Attorney’s Office was notified she would be extradited to North Dakota on October 20. Ten days later, Lipps was booked into the Cass County Jail.
Zibolski pointed out when someone is booked, jail staff reach out to the State’s Attorney’s Office and not the investigating law enforcement agency.
Zibolski said the first time his department was told Lipps was in jail was December 5. Her attorney told Fargo Police one week later he had evidence he believed showed she wasn’t involved in the crime and arranged a police interview with his client.
On December 23, charges were dropped and Lipps was released the next day. Zibolski said a detective tried to arrange her a ride home and offered money for a hotel room, but Lipps refused. Zibolski said this suggested she already had a ride.
Zibolski talked with Cass County Jail Captain Andy Frobig who said Lipps didn’t make a request for winter clothing which is available to people released from jail.
“We’ll be discussing communication with Cass County and the State’s Attorney about issues like this going forward to see if there’s a better way to create notification that we’re at least aware that someone was in custody,” Zibolski explained.
Chief Zibolski said artificial intelligence was used in the Lipps investigation, but other steps to find evidence were taken before bringing the case to the State’s Attorney’s Office. The chief didn’t say what that could be citing the active investigation. He said he doesn’t believe mistakes were made by his department in the case.
“That information requires additional investigative steps. That’s really best practice. I can’t just rely on that solely and that wasn’t the sole reason in which this case was put together,” Zibolski said in regards to his department using artificial intelligence.
Flag Family News reached out to Cass County State’s Attorney Kim Hegvik asking why her office believed Lipps should be charged with bank fraud-related crimes and if she signed off on those charges being filed against her. We received an automated message saying she was out of the office. Flag Family News called the Cass County State’s Attorney’s Office to see if anyone else could respond to our questions, but we were told to wait for Hegvik to respond to our email.
Last week, Flag Family News emailed Hegvik asking why Lipps was charged with some of the main evidence being facial recognition despite her never being in North Dakota. We never received a response.
Zibolski was asked if he would like to offer Lipps and apology.
“We don’t want to see anyone improperly arrested or detained although that does happen in our criminal justice system and sometimes things like this occur. The investigation is still open and we do not know definitively what, if any, her level of involvement is,” Zibolski said in response.
The Fargo City Commission met in executive session on Monday, March 16 to receive advice from the city attorney on possible civil or criminal litigation involving the Lipps investigation.
Chief Zibolski said the Lipps case wasn’t a reason he announced his retirement last week.
“I had been planning this as I said at the press conference in discussions with my family for some time,” Zibolski explained.
Zibolski’s last day with the department is Friday, March 27.
