Comedian Artie Lange was arrested Tuesday morning for failure to comply with his drug court program.

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said Lange was arrested on a drug court warrant at 7:42 a.m. at Freedom House, the Clinton halfway house where he lives as part of the program.

Fontoura said Lange, 51, will remain at Essex County Jail until he is called before a judge for re-evaluation. He said Lange “sounded good" and “looked sober" when he was arrested. The exact nature of his violation is unclear. The last time Lange was in jail, he had tested positive for cocaine, in violation of his probation.

Katherine Carter, spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, said on Monday that Lange was “noncompliant with his drug court requirements" and was due to be arrested.

In late January and February, Lange spent almost a week in Essex County Jail after he tested positive for cocaine for the second time in less than two months. The comedian, who was not sentenced to jail, then started the drug court rehab program, which requires him to work a local job. A video shared by his Twitter account showed that he spent some time working on a garbage truck. When he was arrested, Lange had a job at a gas station on Route 31 in Lebanon.

Just this past weekend, Lange’s Twitter account shared a photo of him with Howard Stern’s new book at the gas station. Lange is best known for spending eight years as a sidekick to Stern on “The Howard Stern Show," from 2001 to 2009. He also had a recurring role on the HBO series “Crashing" before it was canceled this year after three seasons.

Lange, who said his septum has been demolished after years of snorting heroin and cocaine, had expected to be back onstage soon.Essex County Department of Corrections

And in a recent video shared by his Twitter account, Lange, working at the gas station, said he expected to be back onstage soon. In another video posted by a fan who visited Lange during his shift at the station, Lange attributed some recent weight loss to quitting cocaine. At the time, he said he was 111 days “clean and sober.”

Lange has also said that his septum was destroyed after years of sniffing heroin and cocaine, giving his nose a deflated appearance.

In 2018, the comedian, who grew up in Union and has a home in Hoboken, was sentenced to four years of probation in connection with an arrest in May 2017. State Police reported pulling Lange over on the Garden State Parkway and finding him with 81 decks of heroin, including a bag of heroin in his lap with a straw. Lange pleaded guilty to heroin possession after he was arrested for failing to appear in court in December 2017.

Lange had recently completed a short rehab program in December 2018 when he tested positive for cocaine in state Superior Court in Newark. Assistant Prosecutor Tony Gutierrez said Lange would have had to use cocaine as recently as two days prior to the test.

“I wouldn’t be arrogant enough to come in here after using cocaine for two days,” Lange said at the time, maintaining he had used cocaine 10 days before. “It’s in my system and it shouldn’t be.”

Lange could have faced up to five years in jail if he violated his probation, but Judge Nancy Sivilli instead directed his attorney to make an application to drug court.

In an interview with NJ Advance Media in July, Lange talked about his history with addiction and said “fear of jail” would make him successful in rehab, despite many previous attempts.

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

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