Officials put the wrong man in a mental facility for 2 years. When he objected, they called him ‘delusional.’

The Washington Post, August 5, 2021: Officials put the wrong man in a mental facility for 2 years. When he objected, they called him ‘delusional.’

“Joshua Spriestersbach fell asleep on a sidewalk one hot day in May 2017 while waiting for food outside a Honolulu homeless shelter. He woke up to a police officer arresting him for violating the city’s ban on lying down in public places.

At least that’s what Spriestersbach thought.

The officer actually arrested him because he believed Spriestersbach was a man named Thomas Castleberry, who had an arrest warrant out for allegedly violating probation in a 2006 drug case.”

This isn’t as rare as you might think:

The National Registry of Exonerations: Michael McAlister

People Magazine, December 20, 2018: Man Wrongfully Imprisoned for 17 Years After Witness Confused Him with Lookalike Gets $1M Settlement

Fox 17, January 31, 2020: Case of mistaken identity leads to wrongful jailing, public defender's office responds