MACON, Ga. — A Bibb County teenager, his family and his lawyer say he spent two months in jail for a crime he didn't commit.
Joshua Brinson, the wrongfully arrested man, calls it a case of mistaken identity.
Now, he plans to sue the county for a false arrest.
"I be messed up wrong," Joshua said recounting his summer behind bars. "I'm messed up, man. I be finding myself, man, just mad. I just wake up like, 'the devil on me right now,' for some reason. Like, he on me right now."
He says his life changed forever when he was arrested on July 18.
"I don't know what the heck was going on," he said.
Brinson alleges they did not tell him what he was being arrested for, but his Miranda rights were read to him.
He was booked into the Bibb County Jail that day for child molestation.
Brinson's lawyers at Gomez Law Group allege the investigator who oversaw his case wrongfully arrested Brinson under another man's identity.
"He crossed out the warrant," attorney Debra Gomez said. "There was a height, a weight and a date of birth... The only thing in common is that they're both young black men. Other than that, that's it."
Gomez shared documents with the original arrest warrant that followed the original report of the child molestation incident.
The name of the accused shared the same first name as Joshua, however, their middle and last name differ along with their age, birthday and weight.
The only things not crossed out about the accused person's identity were their race, sex, eye color and hair color — all of which Brinson shared.
According to court documents, a tipster told investigators about the molester with a precise weight and height.
On the original documents, the accused weighs 160 pounds, is 5'6" and was born in 2004. All three were crossed off and replaced with Brinson's: 132 pounds, 5'7" and born in 2005.
"Our client spent two months in the hell-hole that is the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center," the attorney said.
"It ain't jail down there, it's a prison down there," Brinson recalled. "Young dudes down there, they make it a prison down there."
Brinson turned 18 years old just six days before he was arrested and nearly a month after the initial incident report accusing the other Joshua was filed.
"While in protective custody, my son got tattoos all over his face," Chiquita Brinson said. "I don't know what's going on at the jailhouse. He went into jail without tattoos, he came out of jail with tattoos — in protective custody. How are they even able to do this?"
The teenager said he only got tattoos on his face. He said the ink was used from sourced from pens.
Brinson and his family say he was a child molestation victim himself. He says he feels unstable, traumatized and victimized again.
"I'm trying not to feel, you feel me? Because I'm not straight. Like I'm straight, but I'm not straight!" he exasperated.
13WMAZ reached out to the Bibb County Sherriff's Office for a response to the allegations made against them by the Gomez Law Group, but they did not return a response in time.