Joshua Spriestersbach’s attorneys filed the lawsuit at the U.S. District Court in Honolulu Sunday. According to an Associated Press report, the lawsuit said that Hawaii officials haven’t responded to a petition filed in August to correct the error that got him institutionalized.

Spriestersbach’s identity mix-up began in 2017 when he was waiting in a long line for food at a Honolulu homeless shelter and fell asleep on the sidewalk.

A police officer mistook Spriesterbach for Thomas Castleberry, who violated probation on a 2006 drug case, and arrested him. The AP reported that in 2011, Spriesterbach gave authorities the name Castleberry, his grandfather’s last name, when he was arrested for sleeping in a middle school stairwell, which might have been the origin of the mix-up.

Though Spriesterbach insisted that he was not Castleberry and gave authorities his name and social security number, no one believed him, and they transferred him to Hawaii State Hospital (HSH).

CNN reported that at HSH, Spriesterbach was ordered to attend group sessions for illegal drug users due to Castleberry’s drug history. When Spriesterbach refused, they gave him anti-psychotic medications that made him feel “despondent and catatonic.”

The more he insisted that he was innocent, the more doctors thought he was psychotic, keeping him at the hospital until one doctor finally believed him.

Spriesterbach’s lawyers said officials tried to cover up the mistake by setting him free quietly, with just 50 cents to his name.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Spriestersbach’s lawsuit alleges false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, abuse of process and other claims.

State Public Defender James Tabe said Monday his office had no comment, while a spokesperson for the Hawaii attorney general’s office didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Representatives for Honolulu police also didn’t immediately respond.

Spriestersbach’s lawyers hope the lawsuit will lead to procedural changes to ensure proper identification of people in custody, said Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project. They’re also seeking monetary damages, to be determined in court.

In 2011, when Spriesterbach gave the name Castleberry to authorities after being caught sleeping in a middle school stairwell, Thomas Castleberry’s 2009 warrant came up, but police were able to determine Spriestersbach wasn’t Thomas Castleberry.

Spriestersbach was arrested again in 2015 for sleeping in a park. He gave his real name, but Thomas Castleberry appeared as an alias. Authorities checked fingerprints and again determined he wasn’t Castleberry.

During his 2017 arrest, Spriestersbach gave his real name, but Thomas Castleberry still showed up as an alias. This time, he was arrested for the warrant.

Even though he was fingerprinted and photographed at a jail, no one checked the prints or photo against Thomas Castleberry’s, the lawsuit said.

Castleberry, who isn’t related to Spriestersbach, is in custody with the Alaska of Department of Corrections, with an expected release date in 2022, the lawsuit said. The Alaska Public Defender Agency, which has represented Castleberry, declined to comment Monday.

Police and others, including Spriestersbach’s public defenders and doctors, all had access to information that would have properly identified both men, the lawsuit said.

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

Spiestersbach now lives with his sister in Vermont. His lawyers said he declined to be interviewed for this story.