Crooked NJ cop facing prison goes missing in Vermont

A convicted former New Jersey police captain and former Sparta mayor missed a court sentencing last week and has been missing for several days. Officials believe he may have driven a rental car to Vermont.

Vermont state police said in a news release that a car rented by Brian Brady was found near a bridge over Lake Champlain last Friday. A subsequent search by a Vermont state police scuba team assisted by New York state police and county sheriff's officers was suspended on Saturday.

Vermont authorities had received a missing person report Thursday from Brady's family, who expressed concern for his well-being, according to the news release. Troopers checked a condo owned by Brady in Smuggler's Notch, in northern Vermont, but didn't find him.

The New Jersey Herald reported that Brady, a former captain of the New Jersey's Human Services Police, was scheduled to be resentenced last Friday in New Jersey on official misconduct and computer theft counts.

His 2014 conviction stemmed from episodes several years earlier in which he had ordered subordinates to conduct computer background checks on several people, including a home health care worker his brother was considering hiring to care for their mother.

A judge sentenced Brady to one year of probation, but last year an appeals court ruled that was too lenient and ordered a resentencing.

The 57-year-old Brady, of Ringwood, also was a councilman and mayor in Sparta.