HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A man held in a psychiatric facility for more than two years under another person’s name will receive $1.775 million as part of a global settlement, with a portion of that money coming from taxpayers.
Joshua Spriestersbach, a former homeless Oahu man, was arrested by Honolulu Police Department officers in May 2017. He was later transferred to the Hawaii State Hospital, all under the identity of Thomas Castleberry, a career criminal wanted for a probation violation.
Settlement breaks down
- $200,000 from the state, related to the public defender’s office failing to act on Spriestersbach’s repeated claims of mistaken identity.
- $975,000 from Honolulu taxpayers, tied to HPD’s arrest of Spriestersbach without conducting a fingerprint check to verify his identity.
- $600,000 from private insurance, as part of a malpractice claim against his treating physician at the state hospital.
None of the defendants admits liability as part of the deal, which still requires approval from state lawmakers and the Honolulu City Council.
What went wrong, according to legal experts
Multiple attorneys at the public defender’s office heard Spriestersbach’s account but did not act on it.
“The lawyers at the public defender’s office are very good, very talented, dedicated lawyers. They do have a lot of cases. And so it looks like three or even four public defenders heard this person’s story, saying it wasn’t me, yet put it aside,” said Megan Kau, a defense attorney and former deputy city prosecuting attorney…