Joe Budden is facing charges after he sleepwalked naked

Former rapper and popular podcast host Joe Budden has been charged with indecent assault in connection with an incident in early December at his apartment building in Edgewater, New Jersey.

Budden, 44, was charged on Dec. 4 after a neighbor allegedly saw the internet personality standing naked in the hallway of their building around 7 a.m., according to a news release from the Edgewater Police Department, quoted by Billboard magazine.

The incident was recorded on a neighbor’s doorbell camera and showed Budden attempting to enter numbers on the keypad several times before returning to his home, the news release said.

Budden’s attorney, Nima Ameri, called the Edgewater police announcement “inflammatory and defamatory,” adding that the incident stemmed from the rapper’s long history of sleepwalking. statement published on Wednesday.

The attorney accused Police Chief Donald Martin of racial bias after issuing a press release before Budden’s hearing.

“If Mr. Budden had not been a prominent Black voice for his community, we do not believe such a press release would have been issued in response to these mediocre allegations,” Ameri wrote. In his rap career, Budden’s top hit was 2003’s “Pump It Up.”

Budden addressed the charges in a recent episode from “The Joe Budden Podcast,” which states, “I just slept and walked somewhere I shouldn’t have slept and walked.”

Budden has filed cross complaints against his neighbor, Ameri told TMZ. Budden’s complaints against his neighbor include “substantially more serious charges” and “possible charges,” Ameri said, although he did not specify what those charges were.

“Rather than focus on these more serious matters, the Chief has chosen to exploit this incident for what we view as his personal gain, jeopardizing Mr. Budden’s constitutional right to a fair trial,” Ameri said in Wednesday’s press release.

Edgewater police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from JS.