New Jersey podcaster and rapper Joe Budden was charged with lewdness after he was allegedly caught standing around naked in the hallway of his apartment building visible on his neighbor’s Ring camera.
The Edgewater Police Department said Monday that they received a call from one of Budden’s neighbors after they reviewed their Ring camera footage from Dec. 4 and saw images of a naked man in the apartment complex.
“The caller recognized the man as a neighbor, Joseph Budden Jr., a 44-year-old male,” Edgewater Police Chief Donald Martin said in a statement.
“The video depicted Budden attempting to enter a code into the door keypad several times before re-entering his own residence across the hall,” the statement said.
The neighbor alleged that the naked Budden prompted their Ring camera alert to go off, which sent notifications that were also viewed by their two young daughters, TMZ reported.
Budden, of the “Joe Budden Podcast,” has yet to respond to the charges in public, but he previously talked about problems with his neighbors and a proclivity for sleepwalking on his podcast.
Following Monday’s police press release, Budden’s attorney, Nima Ameri, slammed the Edgewater Police Department for making the details of the arrest public.
“Mr. Budden is saddened by Police Chief Martin’s press release,” Ameri told TMZ. “Mr. Budden has been waiting weeks for his cross complaints to be processed which include substantially more serious charges including possible felony charges against the persons behind these charges against him.
“The Chief has in our opinion sat on those but instead used his time to gain some free publicity for himself. Chief Martin should seek publicity by doing notable policing not inflaming disorderly person allegations,” Ameri added.
The lawyer also suggested that Martin’s press release was “racially motivated,” claiming Budden’s case was the only time the department put out a press release on a disorderly person charge that had not resulted in an arrest.
The Edgewater Police Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Budden, who hit the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 2003 with his hit single “Pump It Up,” is due back in court in January.