Court records show police detained Joshua Spriestersbach for nearly three years after arresting him in 2017 for offenses involving drugs committed by Thomas Castleberry.

The case of mistaken identity began in 2011 when police found Joshua sleeping at Kawananakoa High School in Punchbowl and asked for his name.

Joshua, a man experiencing homelessness and schizophrenia, did not provide his full name but stated his last name was Castleberry. Upon checking the name, officers discovered a 2009 arrest warrant for Thomas Castleberry on multiple drug charges and proceeded to arrest Joshua.

Despite Joshua's claims that he was not Thomas Castleberry, police arrested him, according to the lawsuit. Joshua failed to appear in court, and the court subsequently canceled the warrant. However, the mistaken identity continued to plague him.

In 2015, police again roused Joshua while he slept in a park and asked for his name. Since police incorrectly listed Thomas Castleberry as an alias for Joshua, they arrested him once more. On this occasion, officers took Joshua's fingerprints, confirming he was not Thomas Castleberry. Yet, the complaint alleges, they failed to update police records.

Then, in 2017, police again awakened Joshua on a Chinatown sidewalk outside the Safe Haven shelter and arrested him under the existing warrant for Thomas Castleberry.

Despite consistently asserting his true identity and providing identification, authorities held Joshua for four months at the Oʻahu Community Correctional Center and then for over two years at the Hawaii State Hospital. The Innocence Project finally secured his release in 1/2020.

Joshua Spriestersbach filed a lawsuit against authorities in 2021. Photo: Nytimes

The lawsuit filed by Joshua states: "Before 1/2020, no one used available information to verify Joshua was telling the truth, that he was not Thomas Castleberry. Instead, they concluded he had delusions and lacked competence simply because he refused to admit he was Thomas Castleberry and refused to admit Thomas Castleberry's crimes."

Joshua alleged that his repeated assertions of innocence and claims that he was not Thomas Castleberry led hospital staff and doctors to interpret his behavior as paranoia and psychosis, resulting in medication in high doses.

Joshua's lawyers stated police could have prevented the incident if they had cross-referenced the suspect's photos and fingerprints with the man they were detaining.

The Honolulu City Council approved a 975,000 USD settlement for Joshua at a meeting last week. He may also receive an additional 200,000 USD from the state to resolve claims against Hawaii's public defender's office.