Brick Man, 37, Gets Seven Year Jail Term for ‘Enticing’ Children Online

Christopher Budelman (Photo: Ocean County Jail)

A Brick Township man has been sentenced to a state prison term after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual assault in connection with a pattern of disturbing online activities after he lured underage victims via a social media app.

Christopher Budelman, 37, of Brick, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Kenneth T. Palmer to seven years in New Jersey state prison. Due to the age of one of the victims, one of the sentences will be subject to the terms of the No Early Release Act, meaning that Budelman will be required to serve at least 85 percent of that prison sentence before he may be considered for parole eligibility. The sentences will run concurrently. Budelman pled guilty to both charges before Palmer on Oct. 4, 2024. Budelman would also be subject to the terms of Megan’s Law and Nicole’s Law – which permanently prohibits him from having any contact with his victims – as well as parole supervision for life.

The incidents occurred during the fall of 2022, prosecutors said. The investigation that led to Budelman’s arrest was the result of a referral from the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The task force “detected that an individual was uploading images of child pornography to the internet” using the Kik Messenger App, a statement from prosecutors said. An investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Unit identified a Kik Messenger user with a Verizon Wireless account as the individual uploading the images of child pornography; that individual was ultimately identified by investigators as Budelman.

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Detectives from the prosecutor’s office, United States Department of Homeland Security, New Jersey State Police K-9 Unit, and Brick Township Police Department, executed a court-authorized search warrant on Budelman’s residence in Brick Township on Sept. 27, 2022. As a result, detectives seized a desktop computer with a hard-drive “containing images of child pornography,” the statement said. Detectives subsequently learned that Budelman was out of the country and, as such, was charged on a warrant and his name was entered into the National Crime Information Center Database.

Budelman, in October 2022, was taken into custody by officers from United States Department of Homeland Security-Investigations Unit at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. He was extradited to Ocean County, but was subsequently freed from custody under the guidelines of New Jersey’s bail reform law.

He is currently back in custody at the Ocean County Jail, with records indicating he is being held on a separate detainer from the DEA, issued by the U.S. Marshals office in Newark. The nature of that detainer was not known.