I Was Arrested For A Warrant That Was Placed On Me, But The Warrant Was Meant To Be For Someone Else

Location: residing in Philadelphia, PA but warrant was issued in NJ

I was arrested today after being pulled over by police. I was traveling through New Jersey, and the police informed me that there was a statewide warrant issued for my arrest. They informed me that my warrant was for aggravated assault and I just didn’t fight with them over it because I knew it was a mistake and I figured the mistake would be caught at some point while I was at the station.

I was booked and placed into a cell for 2-3 hours before the police came into my cell and told me that a mistake was made and the warrant was for someone that has a similar name to me. They apologized to me and said it was a simple mistake, but if the person with the actual warrant isn’t brought in soon, I may be confused with the other individual and arrested again. I applied for a job recently and the background check they conducted on me shows this warrant under my name so now I’m worried that I may be rejected because of it.

The police gave me no clear answers on how this happened, and how their error will be resolved. I spent hours in prison, my record is now tarnished , I may lose a job opportunity for an error that is outside of my control, and this can happen again in the future?? I had a mugshot taken, and I’m just worried that it will never be removed online and this can harm me in the future. I also missed my current job because of this and I’m worried that them finding out I was arrested can lead me to losing my job.

I’m mostly just wondering if I could possibly have any sort of recourse in this, in terms of receiving a formal apology and redaction on record from the station that arrested me.