An innocent man has been awarded a $975,000 payout after he was wrongfully arrested and thrown in a Hawaii psychiatric hospital for years.

Joshua Spriestersbach, who was sleeping on the streets at the time, ended up in the psych ward after cops arrested him for drug crimes committed by another man named Thomas Castleberry back in 2017, court records show.

The mistaken identity saga unfolded years earlier when Spriestersbach, now 54, was found sleeping at Kawananakoa Middle School in Punchbowl and gave cops the wrong name.

Spriestersbach, who has schizophrenia, wouldn’t give a first name but gave his grandfather’s last name: Castleberry.

After running the name, the cop found an outstanding 2009 warrant for Thomas Castleberry, who was wanted on a spate of drug charges.

Spriestersbach was nabbed but later failed to show up to court.

Years later, Spriestersbach was awoken again by cops outside the Safe Haven shelter in Chinatown and arrested on the outstanding warrant after Castleberry’s name was listed as one of his aliases.  

Despite repeatedly insisting he wasn’t Castleberry, Spriestersbach spent four months at Oʻahu Community Correctional Center and more than two years at the Hawaii State Hospital before he was released in January 2020. 

“Prior to January 2020, not a single person acted on the available information to determine that Joshua was telling the truth – that he was not Thomas R. Castleberry,” a lawsuit filed by him states.

“Instead, they determined that Joshua was delusional and incompetent just because he refused to admit that he was Thomas R. Castleberry and refused to acknowledge Thomas R. Castleberry’s crimes.”

The Honolulu City Council approved the $975,000 settlement for Spriestersbach at a meeting last week.

He also may receive a $200,000 settlement from the state to resolve legal claims against the Hawaii’s public defender’s office.

Hawaii police and the mayor’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

With Post wires

Furious protesters blocked off construction trucks and swarmed the site of a proposed homeless shelter in Brooklyn on Sunday evening — after rumors swirled that workers would break ground at the new facility as early as Monday morning.

Several hundred protesters lined multiple blocks in Bensonhurst, calling upon Mayor Zohran Mamdani to shut down the city’s long-standing plans to erect a 150-capacity men’s shelter at 86th Street and 25th Avenue.

Roughly 100 NYPD officers, some dressed in riot gear, attempted to quell the crowd of residents who pushed down barricades and surrounded a moving container truck near the planned shelter site after unconfirmed rumors swirled that construction would begin bright and early on Monday morning.

One protester even stood behind the tires of a container truck as it attempted to back up into the site, where several construction vehicles, including dump trucks, gathered.

“We’re here to protest this homeless shelter, which is going to bring danger to the neighborhood. We’ll stay here all night and come back tomorrow night and the night after that and keep coming back until the mayor shuts down construction of this shelter,” protester Kevin Zhang, 40, told The Post.

“This is a major thoroughfare that mothers and children and elderly people take every day. The subway is right here. Homeless shelters that house dangerous people need to be in isolated areas, not in the middle of major transportation hubs,” Zhang said.

Locals said they fear the men’s shelter, which is near several senior housing complexes, could become a magnet for drugs, crime and other trouble.

Protests against the planned facility in the predominantly Asian District 43 have been ongoing since the city first notified the community about plans for the homeless shelter in November 2023.

During one heated protest in July 2024, Councilwoman Susan Zhuang (D-43) was arrested for allegedly biting a deputy NYPD chief during a scream-filled clash with cops. The charges were later dropped.

The Department of Social Services told New12 earlier this month that the department had sent a message stating that Mamdani’s administration intends to restart the proposed project, but that construction had not yet begun and the project was a long way from completion.

The shelter is still planned to open in late 2027, the agency added.

The Department of Social Services did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the construction timeline.

“Mamdani thinks he can put homeless shelters in any neighborhood he wants because he wants the homeless to feel like they are at home, because maybe being around families will rehabilitate them,” said protestor Alex Lin.

“He could put shelters anywhere in the city, but he chooses to put them right in the middle of our neighborhood,” Lin, 35, added.

“He doesn’t care about the danger that poses to us. Look at all the cops that showed up tonight. Will the cops show up when some homeless drug addict lays his hands on a child?”

A man charged with an attack on San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s bodyguard has been released – after a judge decided it was the security detail who instigated the confrontation.

Judge Sylvia Husing said that Tony Phillips, a 44-year old homeless man, was “violently attacked” by Lurie’s police bodyguard — after viewing a viral video showing the officer, Joel Aguayo, shoving Phillips into a pile of trash with the mayor beside him.

Phillips’ attorney, Ivan Rodriguez, blamed Lurie for the violent scuffle, which left Aguayo bleeding from the head after he was bodyslammed by Phillips.

“The mayor lured his security detail into engaging in this senseless altercation, all for political theatrics, your honor,” Rodriguez said in the courtroom, per Mission Local.

“I don’t think that’s leadership — I think that’s performative,” he said.

A police reported obtained by the San Francisco Standard stated that Lurie ordered his security detail to stop near Cedar Street, an alleyway near the troubled Tenderloin district.

Lurie “hopped out” of the SUV and confronted a group of homeless people sitting on the sidewalk, asking them to move.

“On whose behalf do I need to move?” asked Phillips, who became “argumentative.”

“I’ll Bruce Lee kick your ass,” he told Aguayo, per the report.  

Aguayo suffered cuts to the back of his ahead, bruising to his face and a back injury.
Lurie appeared to respond to the incident in an Instagram video.

“I’m walking the streets of San Francisco every day because I believe you can’t solve what you can’t see,” he said.

“I will continue talking to our families, small businesses owners, and residents and staying laser focused on public safety and transforming our approach to homelessness and the behavioral health crisis.”

A man charged with an attack on San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s bodyguard has been released – after a judge decided it was the security detail who instigated the confrontation.

Judge Sylvia Husing said that Tony Phillips, a 44-year old homeless man, was “violently attacked” by Lurie’s police bodyguard — after viewing a viral video showing the officer, Joel Aguayo, shoving Phillips into a pile of trash with the mayor beside him.

Phillips’ attorney, Ivan Rodriguez, blamed Lurie for the violent scuffle, which left Aguayo bleeding from the head after he was bodyslammed by Phillips.

“The mayor lured his security detail into engaging in this senseless altercation, all for political theatrics, your honor,” Rodriguez said in the courtroom, per Mission Local.

“I don’t think that’s leadership — I think that’s performative,” he said.

A police reported obtained by the San Francisco Standard stated that Lurie ordered his security detail to stop near Cedar Street, an alleyway near the troubled Tenderloin district.

Lurie “hopped out” of the SUV and confronted a group of homeless people sitting on the sidewalk, asking them to move.

“On whose behalf do I need to move?” asked Phillips, who became “argumentative.”

“I’ll Bruce Lee kick your ass,” he told Aguayo, per the report.  

Aguayo suffered cuts to the back of his ahead, bruising to his face and a back injury.
Lurie appeared to respond to the incident in an Instagram video.

“I’m walking the streets of San Francisco every day because I believe you can’t solve what you can’t see,” he said.

“I will continue talking to our families, small businesses owners, and residents and staying laser focused on public safety and transforming our approach to homelessness and the behavioral health crisis.”

The number of homeless individuals living in Saskatoon jumped by nearly 30 per cent last year, new data shows.

The City of Saskatoon released its point-in-time (PiT) data for 2025 Monday and found that 1,931 individuals experienced homelessness last year, which is an increase from 1,499 individuals in 2024.

“The number recorded in 2025 is now more than 3.5 times higher than the total identified during the 2022 count, underscoring a continued upward trend,” the city said.

“This year’s count focused on enumerating individuals rather than conducting full surveys and included people and families staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing, unsheltered locations such as encampments, public systems and those experiencing hidden homelessness.”

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

The City of Saskatoon, in partnership with the Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership and more than 250 volunteers, conducted the PiT count on Oct. 16, 2025. The city said the data “provides a snapshot” of the minimum number of individuals experiencing homelessness across Saskatoon.

Of the 1,931 people experiencing homelessness, 219 were children up to 12 years of age, and 209 were youth between the ages of 13 and 24.

Forty-three per cent of individuals lived in Saskatoon for more than five years, while 27.2 per cent reported living in the city for less than that; 29.8 per cent reported they have always lived in Saskatoon.

Nearly 83 per cent of respondents identified as Indigenous.

“The PiT Count provides both a snapshot of homelessness at a single point in time and valuable insight into year-over-year trends in our community,” Lesley Anderson, director of planning and development with the City of Saskatoon, said in a news release.

“Access to this type of data ensures we understand immediate needs and pressures, while also monitoring the impacts of new and changing programs. As homelessness continues to rise, having accurate data to guide where we allocate resources for the greatest possible impact remains a priority.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday that street encampments won’t be torn down during one of the worst blizzards in New York City’s history — even as homeless people kept camping out and rejecting offers for shelter.

The bomb cyclone offered a new wintry test for Mamdani’s administration after its response to another storm in January descended into a prolonged, deadly crisis that consumed much of his first 60 days in office.

“The blizzard is a time when our focus should be not on physical infrastructure, but on people and on getting them indoors,” Mamdani argued during a news conference over Winter Storm Hernando.

Nineteen New Yorkers died amid the first blast of winter weather, as critics assailed Mamdani’s arguably feckless response to getting homeless people into shelter.

Hizzoner less than a week ago had reversed his past opposition to clearing out homeless encampments, albeit by giving vagrants a new seven-day notice before they’re rousted.

This storm, outreach workers placed 79 homeless New Yorkers into shelters as up to 2 feet of snow fell on the city — and none of those were involuntary removals, Mamdani said.

But some homeless New Yorkers still flat-out refused help as they slept in the blizzard conditions, The Post witnessed firsthand on the Manhattan Bridge’s footpath.

Several tents were completely covered by snow on the bridge’s Manhattan side as FDNY responders and NYPD officers, along with a private ambulance crew, arrived to make sure the indigent occupants were safe.

“I’m alright,” one man said, shaking his head as responders peeled back the tarps.

An FDNY EMT said the man had rejected appeals made in both English and Spanish.

“We can’t remove them. People have the right to be homeless in New York City,” the EMT said.

Two NYPD officers stood nearby as the worker tried to coax the tent dwellers into better shelter, but didn’t remove the man.

Out of 130 homeless people contacted by police, 127 refused to go into shelters. Only two accepted city services, police officials said.

While city outreach teams did not pull anyone off the streets against their will, NYPD officers involuntarily removed one person whom they deemed a risk to themselves, a police department spokesperson said.

Cops can conduct involuntary removals that take homeless people off the streets if they’re deemed a danger to themselves or others — however, EMTs have no power to pull the person inside.

Those removals are different from the practice of tearing down encampments, which is called a “homeless sweep.”

Both came under scrutiny during the last winter storm. Mamdani was slammed for the 19 outdoor deaths, most from hypothermia, as he contended involuntary removals should only be done as a last resort.

Outreach teams with a licensed clinician conducted 33 involuntary removals between Jan. 19 and Feb. 10, roughly the span of the last storm and subsequent cold snap, according to city officials.

NYPD officers conducted 52 removals during that same time period, a spokesperson for the department said.

No deaths have been tied to the latest wintry blast, Mamdani said.

“We are not aware of any deaths related to this blizzard on our city streets or in public areas,” he said.

— Additional reporting by Amanda Woods

Barack Obama took a thinly-veiled jab at California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the homeless “atrocity” in Los Angeles Saturday.

During a conversation with YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama explained: “We should recognize that the average person doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city in the middle of downtown.

”That’s a losing political strategy.”

“I think it is morally — ethically speaking — it is an atrocity that in a country this wealthy, we have people just on the streets, and we should insist on policies that recognize their full humanity — people who are houseless — and be able to provide them with the help and resources that they need.”

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

Meanwhile, at his State of the State address at the Capitol last month, Newsom celebrated a statewide drop in homelessness; however, Los Angelenos were not here for false hopes.

Business owners, residents, and local leaders said the governor’s claims of a 9% decline did not match the reality of widespread encampments and frequent public drug use.

Even inside the Capitol, lawmakers responded cautiously after Newsom’s victory lap.

California has spent more than $24 billion on homelessness programs during Newsom’s time as governor, with spending increasing each year.

In 2024, homelessness reached a record high across the state, with nearly 124,000 people unsheltered, according to federal data. Newsom did not share a statewide total for 2025, and updated federal census data is not yet available.