N.J. police officer accused of misconduct, stalking ex-girlfriend online

A New Jersey police officer has been indicted on charges of allegedly stalking his ex-girlfriend online and over the phone.

Justin Delaney, 33, who is currently suspended without pay from the Brick Township Police Department, has been charged with official misconduct and stalking.

According to an indictment returned Wednesday by an Ocean County Grand Jury, Delaney used social media sites, including Instagram and Facebook, to publish "harassing, annoying, humiliating and alarming messages" about a former girlfriend between November 2012 and May of last year.

Delaney has been a member of the police force since 2006.

He also allegedly used a prepaid cell phone to make harassing calls and send offensive text messages to the victim.

Prosecutors said that, when the woman unwittingly asked Delaney for help in identifying the source of the calls and messages, he used a password obtained during his official duties to access a law enforcement investigative database.

Delaney then allegedly provided the victim with the purported results of the inquiry, telling her the cell phone at issue was untraceable.

Subsequent investigation revealed Delaney was actually the person who procured the phone used to harass the woman, according to the indictment.

Investigators were also able to link the various social media accounts involved in the stalking to Internet protocol addresses registered to Delaney, prosecutors said.

Delaney is currently free on $30,000 full bail. If convicted, he faces a maximum possible state prison term of 10 years for the official misconduct offense and 18 months for the stalking offense.

The Brick Township Police Department cooperated fully with the investigation, prosecutors said.