A Philly woman spent nearly a week wrongfully jailed for shoplifting in Texas — a place she had never been

A Philadelphia woman sat in jail for nearly a week after a case of mistaken identity led to her arrest for a Texas crime, police said.

On Jan. 5, Julie Hudson, 31, walked into a Philadelphia police station to clear up an arrest warrant out of Webster, Texas, that had shown up on her record, authorities said. Hudson, a Ph.D. student with no criminal record, was then arrested by Philadelphia police, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Thursday.

Philadelphia police confirmed that Hudson was taken into custody that day as a fugitive from justice in connection with a shoplifting incident in Webster in July. She was held behind bars for nearly a week before law enforcement officials realized the mistake and released her Thursday morning.

“As an institution, law enforcement owes you an apology,” Krasner said.

One of the suspects in the Texas shoplifting incident was a woman named Julie Hudson. Webster police said social media photos of the Julie Hudson who lives in Philadelphia appeared to match images of the suspect seen in surveillance footage from the incident, Click2Houston reported.

Although Hudson and her family told Philadelphia police she had not been to Texas and had committed no crime, she was kept in jail for days, said Krasner.

Webster police dropped the charges after learning that Hudson was at work in Pennsylvania at the time of the crime in Texas, Click2Houston reported.

Philadelphia police learned that the warrant had been dismissed on Wednesday around 5 p.m., after a media inquiry and she was released within hours, authorities said.

Hudson, who was initially unaware of the warrant, told NBC10 she’d repeatedly been denied jobs as a result. While she was in jail, she said, she was without needed medication for days.

Hudson could not be reached for comment. But she told NBC10 the experience was harrowing.

“When you know that you didn’t do anything wrong, it makes you feel crazy,” she said. “Everybody’s sure that you did something, that you’re a criminal, but you know that’s not who you are.”

A call to the Webster Police Department on Thursday was not immediately returned. Krasner said that there had not been any “meaningful, direct” communication from Webster about the case.

In a statement, Mayor Jim Kenney said his office was “dismayed” by Hudson’s ordeal and was thankful that she was back home.