A police department in Vermont was rocked by a social media scandal that brought down the chief — and the person named as his replacement — within hours of each other Monday.

Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo resigned Monday, days after he confessed to using a fake Twitter account to troll a resident who had been critical of the department, the Burlington Free Press reported.

At a noon press conference announcing del Pozo’s resignation, Mayor Miro Weinberger named Deputy Chief Jan Wright as acting police chief.

But Wright was abruptly relieved hours later after admitting to running a bogus Facebook account under the name “Lori Spicer,” where she engaged in discussions of department policies and practices.

“While Deputy Chief Wright’s situation may be very different than Chief del Pozo’s, given the circumstances the department is facing, I found the failure to raise this issue with me in the lead-up to today to constitute a lapse in judgment,” Weinberger said in a statement Monday evening.

Deputy Chief Jon Murad was then named acting chief after he confirmed “explicitly” that he has never engaged in anonymous social media posting, the city said.

Del Pozo, the city’s police chief since 2015, had created a Twitter account called @WinkleWatchers in July to poke fun at Charles Winkleman, a political activist.

The local paper Seven Days questioned del Pozo on July 23 about his alter ego and he denied being behind the account, saying, “I haven’t created any fake Twitter accounts either, or Facebook accounts, at all.”

The chief on July 28 told the mayor about the bogus account and was placed on leave during an internal investigation. Del Pozo said he had used the account for about 45 minutes before deleting it.

Doctors who examined del Pozo reportedly said his behavior was the result of a mental illness caused by a severe bike crash in 2018 that made him act impulsively.

The mayor announced publicly Aug. 2 that del Pozo was on a medical leave of absence. He spent six weeks receiving treatment and returned to his post in September.

The scandal became public Thursday, when Seven Days published a story saying del Pozo had lied to its reporter about the account — and the chief admitted fibbing.

“It’s 45 minutes of my life spent anonymously tweeting someone in a snarky way that does not befit the chief of police,” del Pozo said at a press conference Friday, “and then, to be candid, denying it out of embarrassment to a reporter, which I think is the more serious problem.”

Del Pozo told the Free Press his actions were “out of character.”

“It’s something I’ve never done before or since … it made no sense and was clearly not the right thing to do.”

The mayor said that despite the Twitter scandal, the city council, police department and community supported del Pozo.

But “It was also clear that if he continued to serve, the days ahead would be very challenging for him, his family, the department and the city,” Weinberger said.

“From the moment that I first read his application, I believed him to be exactly the right person to lead the police in this progressive city at a very challenging moment in American law enforcement,” Weinberger said. “He was.”

Weinberger outlined steps the city would be taking to address the scandal, including amending social media policies for officials.