Brick Man Recorded, Shared Child Sex Videos, Federal Authorities Say

TRENTON, NJ — A Brick Township man charged in Ocean County with distributing child pornography now faces federal charges of producing and distributing videos of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Monday.

Christopher Budelman, 36, has been charged in federal court with two counts of production of child pornography and one count of distribution of child pornography and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Arpert, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.

Budelman is being held at the Ocean County Jail, where he has been since he was arrested Oct. 4, 2022, at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as he returned from a trip out of the country.

The federal complaint alleges that between September 2021 and June 2022, Budelman enticed at least two children — girls ages 12 and 13, both of whom lived outside New Jersey — to engage in sexually explicit conduct via video chats while he masturbated. Budelman, who recorded the video chats and saved them on his computer, gave the girls instructions on what he wanted them to do, according to the complaint.

In addition, Budelman used two Kik messenger accounts to send explicit videos to other people. The videos included two showing adults sexually abusing young children, and one involving children under age 11 engaged in sex acts, according to the complaint.

Budelman had been identified after the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force found a person was uploading child sexual abuse images to the internet using Kik, authorities said. The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Unit traced the messages to a Verizon Wireless account and to Budelman, authorities said.

A search of Budelman's home on Sept. 27, 2022, led to the seizure of a desktop computer, the hard drive of which had nine videos of child sexual abuse, the prosecutor's office said.

It was then detectives learned Budelman was out of the country, and an arrest warrant was issued for him and entered into the National Crime Information Center Database, authorities said.