The comedian was arrested in May for being “non-compliant.”
Comedian Artie Lange will be allowed to continue his drug court probation despite having been arrested for violating its terms.
According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Lange has been held at the Superior Court in Newark, New Jersey and will be held there for a couple weeks before being transferred to another facility. Where to, exactly, is not clear.
Lange was arrested on May 21 at Freedom House, the halfway house where he was staying. The Essex County Sheriff’s Office said that Lange was sober and “coherent” at the time of his arrest. The manner in which Lange violated his probation terms is not clear. Some reports stated that Lange was caught with heroin, but the sheriff’s office denied this.
“Lange is non-compliant. Consequently, he will be taken into custody by officers from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office. He will be returned to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark,” officials said. “All the stories gave the impression he was doing great, but that is not the case.”
Lange was originally arrested on heroin charges. He received four years’ probation, which he has violated twice before this arrest. As part of his probation, he was required to get a local job as part of his work release.
“I gotta pump gas for 10 more days and then I’m satisfying the program I think. If this gets back to Howard, tell him I love him. I love him to death and I miss him,” Lange said in a video posted last month. “I gotta pump gas! I’ll be back onstage soon, though. I promise.”
Lange worked on The Howard Stern Show for eight years before parting ways with the host, the titular Howard Stern, due to Lange’s excessive drug use. But according to Lange, there are absolutely no hard feelings:
“There’s a million times Howard said to me, ‘Go to rehab, take as long as you want, and when you come back, you got a job.’ What else can you expect, and I shit all over that because I was a drug addict. Howard did me right. I love him.”