Eric B of rap duo Eric B. & Rakim has been jailed in New Jersey since October 28 on a warrant for failing to appear in court 17 years ago, his attorney told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday (November 12).
The star, who is currently starring in CBS' Blue Bloods, became aware of the warrant when he was questioned by state police in Vermont in October, as per attorney, Patrick Toscano, and surrendered voluntarily. According to court documents, Barrier, 56, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and resisting arrest/eluding in January 2002 for an incident, which occurred in Ridgefield Park about a year earlier. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear in court for sentencing on March 8, 2002.
Toscano said that Barrier's attorney at the time, Paul Bergrin, told him that "there was no need to appear on the sentencing date." Elsewhere in a letter to Judge James Guida, Bergrin told his client that his case was dismissed "because he was accepted into PT (pre-trial intervention)." Bergrin himself was convicted of murder, cocaine, trafficking, racketeering and other crimes in an unrelated case and is serving six life sentences at a "supermax" federal prison in Colorado.
"The allegations against my client are some 19 years old," Toscano said in a statement to News 4 New York. "The legal advice given to him at that time was exceedingly impolitic, and we will be righting that wrong promptly. Mr. Barrier will be clearing this all up with reasonable dispatch."
Photo: Instagram/therealdjericb