A Hawaiian man was arrested, sequestered at a state hospital and forcibly injected with drugs after being mistaken for someone else, court documents say, according to Hawaii News Now.
Joshua Spriestersbach, 50, was mistaken for Thomas Castleberry, who had an outstanding warrant stemming from a 2006 arrest in Alaska, Hawaii News Now reported. Spriestersbach was homeless at the time and had fallen asleep outside of Safe Haven, a facility for the mentally ill and homeless, and was mistakenly arrested by police, according to the outlet.
Joshua Spriestersbach, a @HawaiiInnocence client, spent three years incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit. He maintained his innocence and told officials they’d mistaken him for someone else — they said he was delusional and kept him heavily medicated. https://t.co/dcx7Li8VbR
— The Innocence Project (@innocence) August 5, 2021
“The real Thomas Castleberry had been arrested in 2006. He had been booked in OCCC in 2006. He had been fingerprinted by the police in 2006. He’d been photographed by the police in 2006,” alleged Ken Lawson of the Hawaii Innocence Project. (RELATED: Philly Police Now Required To First Politely Ask Criminals To Please Stop Doing Certain Crimes)
Vedanta Griffith, Spriestersbach’s sister, claimed that “Every time they called him Thomas Castleberry, he’d say my name is Joshua Spriestersbach. They would use that against him, saying he’s delusional.” Spriestersbach was forcibly injected with drugs in accordance with a judge’s order, especially when he did not attend drug rehabilitation treatment that was meant for Castleberry, Hawaii News Now reported.
Griffith also claimed that she had called hospitals and jails all over Hawaii, not realizing he was being held under a different name. Spriestersbach ended up spending 2 years and 8 months at the facility before people started to believe him and he was released, according to Hawaii News Now.
Spriestersbach is currently staying with his sister in Vermont, the outlet noted.