A rapper-turned-actor who just made his debut on CBS’s “Blue Bloods” was arrested just days after the premiere on a 17-year-old New Jersey warrant, according to his lawyer.
Eric Barrier — previously a member of the Long Island rap duo Eric B. & Rakim — was jailed in Bergen County on Oct. 28 on a bench warrant from March 2002, his attorney Patrick Toscano said.
The warrant was issued that year when Barrier failed to show up to a sentencing after pleading guilty to resisting arrest and aggravated assault in January of that year, according to Toscano.
Barrier claims the no-show was at the direction of his shady former attorney Paul Bergrin, a prominent New Jersey lawyer who turned out to be a criminal himself. Bergrin is in prison for life on more than two dozen criminal counts, including murder conspiracy and racketeering.
The actor, who appeared on “Blue Bloods” Oct. 18, said Bergrin told him he didn’t have to show up to the sentencing because he’d entered a pretrial diversion program, according to his new attorney.
“Mr. Barrier advised me further that he never received any notice at any time regarding his failure to appear,” Toscano wrote to a judge Nov. 6 in calling for an emergency hearing after Barrier was jailed.
“Indeed, he is a highly public figure and currently is a cast member on the television show ‘Blue Bloods’ and is easily reachable at all times,” Toscano wrote.
Toscano put the blame on Bergrin’s “fraudulent, unethical and deceptive” counsel.
Barrier had only found out about the bench warrant a few weeks ago when questioned by Vermont State Police, contacted the courts and returned to New Jersey, where he was jailed.
In a hearing Tuesday afternoon in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack, Judge James Guida ordered Barrier to pay $5,443.53 to Ridgefield Park as restitution before he could be released from jail, court records show.
The rapper/actor’s odd situation was first reported by NJ.com.