A homeless man in Hawaii was mistakenly arrested and confined to a mental health hospital for nearly three years after being misidentified as another person, according to court documents filed by the Hawaii Innocence Project.
Joshua Spriestersbach, 38, was arrested in 2017 after falling asleep on a sidewalk outside a Honolulu shelter. Police mistook him for Thomas Castleberry, who had an outstanding warrant for drug crimes from 2006. Despite never meeting Castleberry, Spriestersbach was sent to the Hawaii State Hospital and forced to take psychiatric medication.
Hospital staff and public defenders refused to believe his claims of innocence, labelling him delusional. It was not until January 2020 that a psychiatrist conducted simple checks—Google searches and phone calls—confirming Spriestersbach was on another island at the time of Castleberry's arrest. He was released with just 50 cents.
The real Castleberry has been incarcerated in an Alaska prison since 2016. The Hawaii Innocence Project criticised police, the public defender's office, the attorney general, and the hospital, calling it a 'gross miscarriage of justice'.
