Eric B has been sentenced to a year’s probation stemming from a motor vehicle stop and police chase that occurred nearly 19 years ago but was not resolved because he failed to appear for his sentencing.



Eric B, whose real name is Eric Barrier, spent two weeks in the Bergen county jail in Hackensack, New Jersey, before his release last week, after the 17-year-old bench warrant surfaced when he was returning to the US from Canada.



Barrier, accompanied by several friends who spoke on his behalf during the sentencing on Friday, said afterwards that state superior court judge James Guida was firm but fair. The 54-year-old New York City native apologised during a brief statement to the court.



“I’m glad it’s over,” he said outside the courthouse.



Eric B and Rakim are known as one of the greatest hip-hop duos of all time. Barrier most recently has been on the CBS show Blue Bloods. Barrier said he was currently on tour and heading to a show in Delaware.

Assistant Bergen county prosecutor Ron McCormick had argued for a jail term, although he conceded that the original 364-day sentence Barrier faced in 2002 was probably not appropriate.



McCormick said sentencing Barrier to probation would send the message to other defendants that they could skip sentencing, lead a productive life and come back years later to get a better deal.



“I don’t think that’s justice, I don’t think it’s fair, I don’t think it’s a deterrent,” he said.

Guida seemed sympathetic to a degree, as he imposed a condition that if Barrier did not comply with the rules of his probation over the next nine months, he would spend the last three months in jail.



Barrier has claimed that his lawyer at the time, Paul Bergrin, told him he did not have to attend the original sentencing because he had been accepted into a pre-trial diversion program that would allow him to avoid jail. On Friday, Guida said he viewed the claim sceptically.



Bergrin is serving multiple life terms after being convicted of racketeering and conspiring to murder a witness against one of his other clients.



Barrier’s current lawyer, Patrick Toscano, said Barrier had travelled abroad extensively and the bench warrant never came up, and that the first time it did, Barrier turned himself in.



According to a police report read in court by Guida, Barrier was stopped in northern New Jersey, just outside New York, in January 2001 when police noticed his Range Rover did not have front licence plates or an inspection sticker. When they pulled him over, he exited his car but eventually drove away and led several officers on a chase and hit several cars including police vehicles, according to the report.





