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Mistaken identity lands man in Hawaii mental hospital
AP ^ | 8/4/2021 | JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER

Posted on 08/04/2021 7:22:22 AM PDT by Mr.Unique

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii officials wrongly arrested a homeless man for a crime committed by someone else, locked him up in a state hospital for more than two years, forced him to take psychiatric drugs and then tried to cover up the mistake by quietly setting him free with just 50 cents to his name, the Hawaii Innocence Project said in a court document asking a judge to set the record straight.

A petition filed in court Monday night asks a judge to vacate the arrest and correct Joshua Spriestersbach’s records. The filing lays out his bizarre plight that started with him falling asleep on a sidewalk. He was houseless and hungry while waiting in a long line for food outside a Honolulu shelter on a hot day in 2017.

When a police officer roused him awake, he thought he was being arrested for the city’s ban on sitting or laying down on public sidewalks.

But what he didn’t realize was that the officer mistook him for a man named Thomas Castleberry, who had a warrant out for his arrest for violating probation in a 2006 drug case.

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: donutwatch; falsearrest
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The psychiatrist asked a detective to come to the hospital, who verified fingerprints and photographs to determine the wrong man had been arrested and Spriestersbach spent two years and eight months institutionalized, the petition said, noting that it wasn’t hard to determine the the real Castleberry has been incarcerated in an Alaska prison since 2016.

1 posted on 08/04/2021 7:22:22 AM PDT by Mr.Unique
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To: Mr.Unique

Just how they treat whitey on Hawaii.

It’s literally the most hostile and racist place I’ve ever been.


2 posted on 08/04/2021 7:24:54 AM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
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To: Jewbacca

I know. When I was there in the 80s I was constantly harassed for being a howley. I would never go back there.


3 posted on 08/04/2021 7:34:33 AM PDT by HighSierra5 (The only way you know a commie is lying is when they open their pieholes.)
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To: Mr.Unique

In the end, this guy is going to end up with more than .50 cents to his name, I hope.


4 posted on 08/04/2021 7:35:34 AM PDT by White Lives Matter
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To: Jewbacca

Yes, they are. And will steal everything but a red hot stove.


5 posted on 08/04/2021 7:37:33 AM PDT by BipolarBob (To get out of this game, guys . . it looks like . . we're going to have to save Jumanji.)
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To: BipolarBob

*Spriestersbach now refuses to leave his sister’s 10-acre property.
“He’s so afraid that they’re going to take him again,” Griffith said.*

He’s no longer homeless. I didn’t know the cops were doing such a good job.


6 posted on 08/04/2021 7:42:30 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: Mr.Unique

Did he work for CNN or PMSNBC?


7 posted on 08/04/2021 7:42:31 AM PDT by Zathras
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To: White Lives Matter

For each year? At least $150k.


8 posted on 08/04/2021 7:42:51 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: BipolarBob

Note that the billionaire$, when they buy in the Islands, it is behind a gate!


9 posted on 08/04/2021 7:44:02 AM PDT by SES1066 (Ask not what the LEFT can do for you, rather ask what the LEFT is doing to YOU!)
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To: Jewbacca

That’s nothing new. I had a friend in high school in the 1970s who had just moved from there. He was a tough kid from all the fights with the islanders expressing their love for haoles.


10 posted on 08/04/2021 7:44:06 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Mr.Unique

I was drinking beers and the occasional Jack Daniel#s shots at a Bar with a friend from work.

We left and separated at the train station. He then returned to the bar and threatened people with a raised barstool so they called the cops who took him to a hospital where they put him in a straightjacket for the night.

I ended up getting a ticket from a cop for not paying the train fare.

When he told me his story I told him mine and said at least he didn’t have to pay a fine.

That’s all I got.
Take it or leave it.


11 posted on 08/04/2021 7:46:47 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
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To: Mr.Unique

The people who did this to him need to be in prison. They will never will be.


12 posted on 08/04/2021 7:47:07 AM PDT by I want the USA back (To find out who really rules you, find out who you're not allowed to criticize. Voltaire. )
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To: Mr.Unique

Joshua Spriestersbach, Thomas Castleberry. Easy to confuse the two names.


13 posted on 08/04/2021 8:11:41 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

Where I live there is a guy with the exact same name as mine; except that the middle name is different but the initial is the same. About 20 years ago he got into some trouble and three felony warrants issued for his arrest. I had a string of cops showing up at my house for 4 years. A couple of times it got pretty tense.


14 posted on 08/04/2021 8:19:01 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: mad_as_he$$

Same sort of thing happened to my stepson about 10 years ago. Took years (and thousands in attorneys’ fees) to get it straightened out. Law enforcement agencies wouldn’t do a thing without severe threats of legal action.


15 posted on 08/04/2021 8:25:42 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: Mr.Unique
"Mistaken identity lands man in Hawaii mental hospital"

Be careful who you end up sharing a room with:


16 posted on 08/04/2021 8:43:07 AM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest )
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To: mad_as_he$$

*I had a string of cops showing up at my house for 4 years. A couple of times it got pretty tense.*

They don’t update their $hit. Happened to me twice. They were looking for an illegal. Didn’t care to know I bought the house after a swat team showed up and ran them out. You’d think they’d be on top of this.


17 posted on 08/04/2021 8:55:27 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: White Lives Matter
In the end, this guy is going to end up with more than .50 cents to his name, I hope.

From the article, “He moved to the Big Island and then disappeared, while suffering mental health issues, she said.”

He had “mental health issues” was living on the street pan handling, and most likely getting money in more nefarious ways as well. He gets picked up and gets treated, fed and taken care of in some type of mental hospital in paradise for free for two and a half years. Why did this really happen? Because he was bat sh*t crazy and belonged in a mental hospital. Everyone who came into contact with him realized this so no one cared about the previous issues or who he actually was.

My guess is that there is much more to the story than what is being told in this article.

18 posted on 08/04/2021 8:56:18 AM PDT by fireman15
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To: Mr.Unique

He hit the lotto!

The money he will be awarded could be a new start for him , but likely he will sod down it all .


19 posted on 08/04/2021 8:59:51 AM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Leave me alone, I have no incriminating evidence on the Clinton’s )
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To: DIRTYSECRET
They were looking for an illegal. Didn't care to know I bought the house after a swat team showed up and ran them out. You'd think they'd be on top of this.

Our house was raided by the King County Swat Team years ago while I was at work. They held a gun to my wife's head, threatened to kill our dogs who were in their pen, made a mess, and broke our front door jam which still causes problem. They said they were looking for someone who had given a phone number that was used at our address before we moved in the last time they were incarcerated. It wasn't the people we bought the house from who built it in 1975 and were in their late 70s or anyone they knew.

20 posted on 08/04/2021 9:02:39 AM PDT by fireman15
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