Can a person be arrested even though he/she has a certificate of release form for the same charge?

My friend got in some trouble with the police one night and they gave him a release form which said, "....was released purusant to the provisions of paragraph 1 of subdivision b of Penal Code Section 849." Paragraph 1 stated, "Any Peace Officer may release from custody, instead of taking such person before a magistrate, any person arrested without a warrant whenever he is satisfied that there are insufficient grounds for making a criminal complaint against the person arrested." We all thought he was off the hook, but a month later they came back and arrested him for the same reason he was "released" for. Is that even allowed?