A Hawaii man has been awarded a $975,000 settlement after spending years confined in a psychiatric hospital following a wrongful arrest tied to mistaken identity, according to court records and local officials, as reported by The New York Post.
Joshua Spriestersbach, now 54, was taken into custody in 2017 after police connected him to drug-related crimes committed by another individual, Thomas Castleberry. At the time, Spriestersbach was homeless and sleeping on the streets.
The situation traces back to an earlier encounter when Spriestersbach was found sleeping at Kawananakoa Middle School in the Punchbowl area.
Joshua Spriestersbach has schizophrenia. He was sleeping… pic.twitter.com/6ZLysByPZs
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During that interaction, he provided law enforcement with incomplete identification, refusing to give a first name but offering his grandfather’s last name, Castleberry.
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After running the name, an officer located an outstanding warrant from 2009 for Thomas Castleberry, who was wanted on multiple drug charges.
Based on that information, Spriestersbach was arrested. He was later released but failed to appear in court, according to records.
Years later, police encountered Spriestersbach again outside the Safe Haven shelter in Chinatown. He was arrested on the outstanding warrant after Castleberry’s name appeared as one of his listed aliases.
Despite repeatedly stating that he was not Thomas Castleberry, Spriestersbach remained in custody.
He spent four months at the Oʻahu Community Correctional Center before being transferred to the Hawaii State Hospital, where he remained for more than two years.
Spriestersbach, who has schizophrenia, was ultimately held in the psychiatric facility until his release in January 2020.
A lawsuit filed on his behalf detailed how officials failed to act on information that could have confirmed his identity.
The filing states, “Prior to January 2020, not a single person acted on the available information to determine that Joshua was telling the truth – that he was not Thomas R. Castleberry.”
The lawsuit further states, “Instead, they determined that Joshua was delusional and incompetent just because he refused to admit that he was Thomas R. Castleberry and refused to acknowledge Thomas R. Castleberry’s crimes.”
The Honolulu City Council approved the $975,000 settlement during a meeting last week, bringing a financial resolution to part of the legal claims filed by Spriestersbach.
In addition to the city settlement, Spriestersbach may also receive $200,000 from the state of Hawaii as part of a separate agreement tied to claims against the state’s public defender’s office.
Officials from the Hawaii Police Department and the mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment regarding the case.
The case highlights a prolonged series of misidentifications that resulted in extended incarceration and psychiatric confinement, despite repeated assertions by Spriestersbach that authorities had detained the wrong person.
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