General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOfficials put the wrong man in a mental facility for 2 years. When he objected, they called him ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/05/hawaii-mistaken-identity-arrest/By Jonathan Edwards
Today at 4:16 a.m. EDT
Joshua Spriestersbach fell asleep on a sidewalk one hot day in May 2017 while waiting for food outside of a Honolulu homeless shelter. He woke up to a police officer arresting him for violating the citys ban on lying down in public places.
At least thats 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.
It was the first mistake of many that led to Spriestersbach spending two years and eight months in jail and a mental institution for crimes he didnt commit, according to a 36-page petition filed Monday by the Hawaii Innocence Project. While locked up, doctors pumped him full of powerful psychiatric drugs, judges ruled that he was unfit to stand trial and his lawyers ignored his assertions that police had the wrong man, the document claims.
[...]
TexasTowelie
(111,292 posts)Merlot
(9,696 posts)TexasTowelie
(111,292 posts)However, the damages will likely be reduced since the man was homeless which meant that he didn't have much economic loss. It's the exemplary damages that should be substantial. Hopefully, the man will use any proceeds from the litigation to place himself in a situation where he will no longer be homeless.
SamKnause
(13,041 posts)What about people who live in poverty ???
What about people who are unemployed ???
What about a spouse that does not work ???
What about people who are on a low fixed incomes ???
Their freedom is as valuable as the rich and powerful.
What is the value of losing your freedom and being drugged for 3 years ???
The judicial system in the U.S. is evil and corrupt.
TexasTowelie
(111,292 posts)businessowner might make.
What about people who are unemployed ???
What about a spouse that does not work ???
What about people who are on a low fixed incomes ???
Their freedom is as valuable as the rich and powerful.
I'm not dismissing that those mentioned don't have value or don't value their freedom. However, at least a portion of their losses would be classified as "noneconomic" losses. People on a low fixed income would not have an economic loss as long as their checks still arrived and the bills were paid so if they have automatic deposits and withdrawals nobody might notice.
The value to most people would be that it is substantial, particularly the drug treatments. That is where he has the opportunity to get a large settlement for future damages.
onetexan
(12,994 posts)Things done to him in the sanitorium. Just that alone coyld have driven him to insanity.
Demovictory9
(32,320 posts)mjvpi
(1,384 posts)I need to remember this story whenever have "one of those days".
SamKnause
(13,041 posts)They don't give a damn about innocence.
They have corrupt police arresting, brutalizing, and killing innocent people.
Prosecutors lie.
Police lie.
Public defenders lie.
Evil and corrupt from the top to the bottom.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Not an honest one in the bunch?
live love laugh
(13,000 posts)MineralMan
(146,192 posts)There are issues, of course, but it's not like how you describe it.
raging moderate
(4,281 posts)There was a movie made in the thirties (I think) about a well-meaning but naive young man, born rich, who wanted to become a movie producer. He had written a movie called "Brother, Where Art Thou?" which he described as an effort to show the struggles of poor people. He was having trouble finding a studio that would produce the movie. There was a scene in which two studio owners discuss the script of this movie. Both of them having originally come from genuinely poor families, they implied that the script was not very realistic. Then the young rich guy fell and hit his head somehow, with lasting dizziness and amnesia, and the police and judges assumed he was some kind of drunk or druggie or crook, and he wound up in some awful jail, working on a chain gang. At the end of the movie, he regained his memories, got out of jail, and wised up about a lot of things.
MaryMagdaline
(6,849 posts)prisoners were watching a movie and burst out laughing at some silly comedy. The main character went from total despondency to pure joy. You really got the feel for down and out people while watching that movie. I would think of that scene every time I would drive by prisoners doing highway cleanup (chain gangs, really)
bucolic_frolic
(42,663 posts)Lawyers supposed to listen and play devil's advocate with the legal system. Did no one compare notes, photos, records, fingerprints, Social Security numbers? I know ... I just read it, but there is a lot to foul up to carry on mistaken identity for 2 years.
Orrex
(63,084 posts)Cops just grab some rando and slap him with whatever warrant they happen to have on hand?
cab67
(2,962 posts)The victim in this case eventually settled with several agencies - and remarkably, one of them agreed to formally apologize, though only after being humiliated in court while trying to defend itself.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)how do you not review the paperwork? Typically, fingerprint cards are sent to the FBI for the purposes of identification. They would have had a reply. There is incompetence on the part of all the bad actors aka/ as so-called professionals.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,145 posts)(or, you know, abolition) of the criminal justice system (whether it's policing or incarceration) without a similar reform of the mental health system is hardly worth it.
live love laugh
(13,000 posts)Python boot
(74 posts)Governmental entities are open to lawsuits but what about the individual actors? Did they show due professional care? Medical professional have malpractice insurance. Governments are self-insured against negligence by LEOs.
Texin
(2,585 posts)Every entity involved in this travesty should be sued in civil proceedings such that they are all left with nothing but what they're presently wearing.
jaxexpat
(6,701 posts)If any of them know of corruption among their colleagues and don't start and end their every day with publicly decrying and prosecuting the corruption they see, then the whole system has built-in abetment to public rot in the judicial system from top to bottom. It can not self-improve while perpetual infection is not eliminated.
When one man faces injustice all men are wronged. This is the essence of justice. When, over time, it becomes so burdensome that it is intolerable to the masses then there is revolution. That is carnage of the good along with the evil. Minimizing the existence of danger in the justice system is aiding the danger. There is none among us who has the length and breadth of life experience to excuse the existence of corruption in our government. The echo of self-righteous assurances from any who think, in their finite wisdom, everything will work out fine without an all-consuming intolerance for crime in positions of authority and the necessary singlemindedness of purpose to root out corruption hurts my ears.
Perhaps there are those who mis-apply the concept of herd immunity to some mythical quota for tolerance of the crimes by public officials.
RVN VET71
(2,686 posts)Well, not killed him directly -- but certainly the should have allowed him to die. That way everybodys happy and no one gets embarrassed or massively sued.
I expect hell sue and get a modest settlement. Modest because he cant afford a legal team to pursue justice. The various state and medical facilities will pony up about $1 million. His lawyers will take most of it. Hell take whats left and maybe have enough to buy a pair of shoes and a room in a flop house. In actuality, the state should purchase for him a couple of houses in Hawaii and elsewhere, plus lay a fat pension on him, plus a fund exclusively in his name in the 10s of millions of dollars. Oh, and the hospital staff should be sanctioned, some losing their license to practice and, possibly, one or two imprisoned -- and of course the arresting officer needs to be scrutinized and, possibly, disciplined, including firing if the evidence shows deliberate misfeasance.
I could go on and on -- but none of its gonna happen. Hell get a small settlement which his lawyers will eat up and the guilty parties will breathe a sigh of relief.