Blue Bloods actor and hip-hop musician Eric Barrier has been sitting in a New Jersey jail since Oct.28 after authorities arrested him on a 17-year-old warrant, according to NJ.com. Barrier, 56, allegedly became aware of the arrest warrant last month while he was being questioned by state police in Vermont. According to NJ.com, Barrier pleaded guilty in January 2002 to aggravated assault and resisting arrest related to an incident in Ridgefield Park. On March 8, 2002, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear in court for his sentencing.

Paul Toscano, Barrier’s lawyer, said in a letter to the court last week that at the time, Barrier was told he did not need to appear at his sentencing hearing. Toscano added Barrier’s previous lawyer told him “that his case was ‘dismissed’ because he was accepted into PTI (pre-trial intervention),” the letter states, adding the actor never received a notice about his failure to appear in court. “Indeed, (Barrier) 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, adding that his client is “literally at wits end and overcome with anxiety.”