#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black Woman’s Life Destroyed Over a LIE at an Auto Parts Store

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Tamara Parker did nothing wrong. She went to an auto parts store a car parts store looking for a part and days later was arrested, humiliated, and nearly erased — all because someone lied and the system didn’t care. She was never at the scene. The forensics proved it. Her life still shattered. 🔥 Arrested after shopping at Advance Auto Parts  🔥 Wrongfully ID’d. No evidence. Phone forensics cleared her  🔥 She was at a graduation the whole time  🔥 Lost her job, her home, and her ability to work  🔥 “Sometimes being Black in America is the only crime you committed.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Tate McCragg, The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today, AXS.com. All your tickets today AXS.com. All right, folks, welcome back to Roland Martin, Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. You know what, there are so many different cases that we cover on this show that sometimes just leave you perplexed and you're like,

what the hell is going on? Well, this story out of North Carolina is one of those. Attorney Harry Daniels is representing the system in this and it's sort of strange, if you will, what transpired here. And so let me walk you through this story. Okay, Tamara Parker was wrongfully arrested. Okay, now she loses everything

being falsely accused of a crime. No criminal record. She spends months trying to clear her name, loses her job, loses her home. After police claim she matched the description of a suspect and the description was a black woman. Now charters have been dropped against her. Her mugshot though online, people can pull it up, Her mugshot though, online, people can pull it up, it's everywhere. And so imagine now you're trying to have to rebuild your life.

Tammar and her attorney, Harry Dennis, joins us right now. Glad to have both of you on the show. So what the hell, first of all, what did they accuse you of doing? And what was the description and was that person actually ever apprehended? And they in any way resemble you? I have no idea.

So what they said happened was someone took someone's credit card information, bought two Apple iPhones, and sent them to an advanced auto parts store. I had no idea what was going on. I don't think that they ever got a suspect. I'm not too sure, but not to my knowledge. I think I was-

So how do they get around to you? Like what happened? So I went into the store, the Advanced Auto Parts store. I went in on May the 16th of last year. I was looking for a part. I actually had the part in my hand, and they didn't have it. I got assistance from the store associate, and then a little over a week later, the police came to my house and had a search warrant to search my home. I had no idea why they were there,

but that was the only time I ever went into that store. So the first time you ever go to this auto parts store, you looking for a part, then all of a sudden a week later, they're showing up at your house. And when they show up at your house, what do they say? I let them in because there was something that happened in my daughter's school earlier that week. So I just thought a teacher was arrested.

So I started thinking about that. Like I thought they were coming to my house to tell me something happened to my child. So I let them inside to like see what they had to say. And the guy just started like yelling, like I just wanna know if this is a one-time thing or if you're a part of a ring and I had no idea what he was talking about. So then he just kind of start going off. So then he told me like what happened

or he said first did you go into an advanced auto parts store and I said yes I went there on last Thursday to look for a part and I had to like part with me. So that's what he told me that's when he told me. That's when he told me what I was accused of. And at first I thought it was a joke because who would do something like that? That was like the craziest thing I've ever heard of. So then like I opened up my wallet. I'm like, Hey, you can look and see like I don't have anyone's information. Like I own my home. I have like a good credit score, equity stuff in my home. I have like a good credit score, equity is stuck with my home. I have reasons to do something like this.

This is like the most ridiculous thing. But yeah, he was very aggressive. That is, so Harry, what's crazy to me is if you're the store, you have surveillance video. If she didn't, like the video should show if a card was taken, used or whatever the heck. Like what the hell is this? Thanks Roland for having us on. Roland, first off, you know, we do a lot of cases, a lot of cases usually dealing with serious injury, death related to law enforcement. But this was a case that we could not pass up based on the extraordinary and disbelief

of what happened to this Tamara. No surveillance cameras, no outside cameras or surveillance cameras in the store at Advanced Auto Park in Dallas, North Carolina. She simply went into the store May 16th to pick up a part for her husband. She went to Advanced Auto Parts next door. They didn't have the part either. What transpired was that, like she said, somebody sent these folks to the store, and subsequently, one of the sales associates at the store said that the person had came back in the store,

after police went to the store to pick up the phones, had came back into the store said that the person had came back in the store after police went to the store to pick up the phones, had came back into the store, and they took a picture of the person's license plate. Well, that day was May 20th. On May 20th, Tamara was nowhere around the store. In fact, she was at a kid's pre-K graduation, an other kid's graduation, middle kids graduation, elementary school graduation, out with family, no one knew the story. And law enforcement knew it because when they took the

phones and she freely gave the passcode to the phones once they had to search more, and they did forensics on the phones, a rolling, and at the forensics they found that she was not at the store on the date that sales associate alleged that she was there. They knew that she did not commit this crime. Nevertheless, they pursued it. They got a warrant for her arrest.

She was arrested. She lost everything, a job, great job, a good reputation, mugshot. Her home is now for a closure of sales. She's multiple months, several months behind. And she's currently under the care of a doctor. You know, this is—and she's unemployable at the time, because she was an insurance agent, and nobody wants to hire anybody who's been accused of stealing identity fraud or identity theft, especially when you have public trust and you deal with a public identity on a day-to-day basis, day-to-day basis.

But these are one of those cases that law enforcement, Ova Zellers Law Enforcement, a clerk that—we're going to get to the bottom of what happened here, because she clearly gave false information to the police that the Miss Parker was in the story. She was not. We're going to find out where that come from. And not just that, law enforcement completely ignoring innocence as sculpatory evidence and pushing for some gender that left this family upside down, literally, with finances and in a place that anybody could have been in, especially the Parkins family,

where she was a law-abiding citizen, hardworking, taxpayer, no criminal record, making money, own her own home, equity, savings, accounts, good credit, and all of a sudden, all of that was taken from her as a blink of an eye. So we got a lot of work to do. We're gonna pursue this case, and we gonna make sure we get some justice

from this Parker. Kamera, how long did you spend in jail? It was only a few hours on paper. It said like 15 minutes. When I went in, of course I was talking like, hey, you guys have the wrong person. And they were just like, well, this detective, he doesn't make mistakes.

He's the best. And he wouldn't be doing this unless he has solid evidence. And I'm like, he doesn't. So when they took me in, I just kept saying, like, you guys have the wrong person. But they did like the intake. I went and talked to the magistrate. And the magistrate said I can leave,

like gave me the paperwork, you know, said he'd unsecured bond. He even made a joke like, Miss Parker, do you have a ticket or any speeding tickets? And I'm like, when I was like 19 or 20, and so he basically told me I was leaving. I didn't leave. They put me in a hold and sell after the magistrate unsecured my bond and told me I could leave. Yeah, Roland, just to add, this is, and the evidence and what I just told you and the facts of this case, it's not speculative. This is what is in the discovery, the criminal discovery. I'm not making it up.

This is what the DA had. He wants the DA review this discovery. And a lot of times, the DA don't review the discovery until they get an indicted case. He immediately dismissed this case with insufficient evidence. Dismissed it. We have the dismissal. We have the evidence to show. And we look forward to pursuing this case with insufficient evidence. Dismissed it. We have the dismissal. We have the evidence to show. And we look forward to pursuing this case.

And this just goes to show that, even when you're doing right, when you're doing good, you're doing everything good, you're not breaking the law. You've been a law-abiding citizen. And sometimes, being black in America is the only crime you committed. And this woman and her family has done nothing wrong and they are in a position where they need help, obviously, and we're here to help them and get some redress for. All right, then, well, surely we hope you are able

to do that because, again, this is the last thing a lot of people would ever wanna have to deal with. Thanks a lot. Take care, Rola. This is the GoFundMe page for Tamara Parker if you are interested in donating. She's trying to put her life back together. So this is it right here. So far less than $1,400 has been raised. And so again, you see it right here.

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The untold story of genius, betrayal and the app that died so that TikTok could thrive. From overnight stars to the fall that no one saw coming, we're breaking down what made Vine iconic. Listen to Vine on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don't let biased algorithms or degree screens or exclusive professional networks or stereotypes. Don't let anything keep you from discovering

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