An American is set to receive $975,000 (approximately 840,000 euros) in damages and interest after being wrongly imprisoned and involuntarily committed for over two years. As reported by AP News in a recent article, Joshua Spriestersbach was arrested by the police in 2017 while living on the streets in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was mistaken for another man, Thomas Castleberry.
The confusion stemmed from an incident in 2011 when the homeless man was awakened by the police while sleeping at a college. Reportedly, he refused to provide his first name and only gave his grandfather’s last name, Castleberry, which was mistakenly added to his record along with a photo.
In 2017, the 55-year-old man thought he was being arrested for falling asleep on a sidewalk while waiting in line at a city shelter. However, he was actually detained based on a warrant for Thomas Castleberry. Despite explaining that he was not the fugitive, no one believed him. He spent four months in jail and over two years in a psychiatric hospital.
He was finally released in 2020 when the error was uncovered. The lawsuit, supported by AP News, highlights the failure to verify Joshua’s identity and the rush to label him as delusional and incompetent just because he refused to admit he was Thomas R. Castleberry.
