Justin Delaney

Justin Delaney, a patrolman with the Brick Township Police Department, was indicted on Wednesday on charges of official misconduct and stalking.

(Brick Township Police Department)

TOMS RIVER – An Ocean County Grand Jury indicted a Brick Township police officer on Wednesday on official misconduct and stalking charges.

The two-count indictment alleges that between November 2012 and May 2013, Justin A. Delaney, 33, of Brick, used various social media websites – including Instagram and Facebook – to publish harassing, annoying, humiliating and alarming messages about a former girlfriend, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced Friday.

Investigators were able to link the various social media accounts to IP addresses registered to Delaney, who is also alleged to have used a prepaid cellular telephone to make harassing and offensive text messages and phone calls to the victim, authorities said.

The indictment also alleges that Delaney – an eight-year veteran of the Brick Township Police Department - used a password he obtained in his official capacity as a patrolman for the police department to access a law enforcement investigative data base without authorization.

Delaney improperly accessed the database after the victim asked for his assistance in trying to determine the source of the harassing telephone calls and text messages, authorities said.

Delaney allegedly accessed the database and provided the purported results of that inquiry to the victim, and created the false impression that the cellular telephone at issue was untraceable. However, a subsequent investigation determined it was Delaney who obtained the prepaid cellular telephone that was used to make the offensive and disturbing communications, the prosecutor's office said.

On Wednesday, the grand jury indicted Delany – who is currently suspended from his job without pay – on charges of second-degree official misconduct and fourth-degree stalking. He is currently free on $30,000 bail with no 10-percent option, the prosecutor's office said.

The second-degree official misconduct charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in New Jersey state prison with a stipulated period of parole ineligibility of five years. The fourth degree stalking statute carries a maximum potential sentence of up to 18 months in New Jersey state prison, authorities said.

The indictment was presented by Executive Assistant Prosecutor Michael Paulhus and the case will be prosecuted by Chief Trial Attorney Laura Pierro.

Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato commended the Ocean County High Tech Crime Unit its "significant contribution to the investigation" and said that the Brick Township Police Department, specifically its Office of Internal Affairs, contributed and cooperated fully with the investigation.