09. The Case of Mistaken Identity That Left a Man in a Psych Hospital for Years

A wrongful arrest landed a homeless man in the state mental hospital for more than two and a half years. Joshua Spriestersbach, 50, was homeless and sleeping outside Safe Haven in Chinatown when he was suddenly arrested by police officers. They believed he was Thomas Castleberry, a convicted drug user, car thief and burglar. Despite telling officials multiple times that he wasn’t Castleberry, Spriestersbach was instead jailed, then sent to the Hawaii State Hospital, where he was forced to take medication he didn’t need.
It’s a story of mistakes, apparently by so many people at so many levels. In episode 9 of “The Other Side of Paradise,” HNN investigative reporter Lynn Kawano talks to Spriestersbach’s sister Vedanta Griffith about her efforts to get answers. Plus, we talk to the co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, Ken Lawson, who explains why he believes the state tried to cover-up the mistake.

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