by Mike Donoghue

MONTPELIER – The director of the enforcement and safety division at the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, who had been on paid leave since January pending an unspecified external investigation, is back at work, officials said.

There was no basis for any charges or actions against Wade Cochran of Waterford from the investigation stemming from a complaint while he was working as part of an FBI Violent Crime Task Force in Vermont, Agency of Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn said.

Cochran, who was hired by DMV last August, has resumed his full duties, Flynn said.

The Vermont DMV determined there was no basis for it to take any action, he said.  Whatever the FBI was investigating, it happened long before he got to DMV, Flynn said. 

Burlington lawyer Ian Carleton, who represents Cochran, said his client was completely forthcoming when questioned for an hour by two FBI investigators in late January.

“The FBI found no reason to think he broke the law, because he did not do so, and therefore did not recommend charges,” Carleton said.

“That is where the story ends as far as I am concerned,” Carleton said. 

Cochran had departed the task force for more than a year when the FBI complaint began to process the unknown complaint

Flynn and DMV Commissioner Wanda Minoli both said they were glad to have Cochran back to work and that nothing was found.  He had come highly recommended when hired as the permanent replacement for former director Tony Faces last year.   

Cochran was a longtime Montpelier Police officer and while heading the detective division he was put on loan to work with FBI special agents on federal drug and other important cases undertaken by the task force.    

The FBI has been closed mouth about the complaint it received, including who filed it and even the general nature of the internal inquiry. 

There also is no word on whether any FBI special agents or other task force members were put on leave while the internal investigation was conducted. 

While the State of Vermont has been forthcoming about Cochran, the FBI has said it is not required to provide similar information about their agents.

The case has been handled by the Justice Department and FBI in Washington.  The FBI in Vermont and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Burlington both said they wanted to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest and stepped away from the complaint.

Brian Jacob, a supervisory special agent for the FBI’s Albany Field Office, said while he wished he could discuss the findings of the Cochran report, he said he thought he was precluded from speaking about it. 

Jacob referred questions to his office spokesperson, who said she was unable to confirm or deny there was even an investigation.  Spokesperson Sarah Ruane punted questions to the Department of Justice’s Media Office in Washington, which has been unresponsive to multiple inquiries for more than a week.

Ruane did offer a statement that included the standard FBI response to news inquiries,  “As a matter of policy, the FBI can’t confirm or deny investigations.”

Carleton said he sat in his Burlington office with Cochran as his client answered any and all questions thrown at him by the FBI on Jan. 25, three weeks after his client was put on leave by the state DMV.

Cochran, Carlton and Vermont DMV have been waiting ever since for the FBI to follow-up or close the case, but nothing happened until last month. Flynn said the FBI told him the case was going nowhere.

Flynn said the state had to follow up on some of its procedures before Cochran could be fully reinstated.  They were completed and Cochran was back to work in late June.

It was unclear if the complaint came from one of the drug dealers Cochran or the task force arrested and the suspect was looking for leniency in his or her case.  

Supervisory Special Agent Brant Gage, the new commander of the FBI offices in Vermont, had declined comment in January about the source of the complaint.

Craig Tremaroli, the Special Agent in Charge at Albany, N.Y., which oversees the Vermont FBI office, also has been unwilling to return a phone call for comment, a spokesperson said.  Tremaroli took over the Albany post in late November – the seventh leader since 2017.

Nikolas “Kolo” Kerest, the U.S. Attorney for Vermont, also has declined to discuss the case after disqualifying himself.  His office handled several major drug cases investigated by Cochran earlier in his career when assigned to the Vermont Drug Task Force.

Cochran worked for more than 17 years with the Montpelier Police Department, climbing his way up through the ranks — an officer, corporal, patrol sergeant and detective sergeant. Montpelier assigned him for five years to the Vermont Drug Task Force before returning to the city police department.

Cochran then split his time between the MPD and serving on the FBI Violent Crime Task Force in Vermont for two years, when he resigned to accept the post of police chief for the town of Norwich in October 2022.

After 10 months, he headed back to the Capital City to work for the DMV.

The DMV enforcement division has about 29 sworn officers and a civilian staff of 14. The division is responsible for vehicle inspections, licensing and training management, dealer regulations, investigations, commercial vehicle regulation, and motor carrier safety, among other programs and services. The DMV has picked up more investigation of serious truck crashes after state police implemented cutbacks.

Cochran is a graduate of Champlain College, where he majored in criminal justice. He began his law enforcement career as an emergency dispatcher for the Vermont State Police in St. Johnsbury, and by 2002 had been hired as an officer for Hardwick Police. Barre City hired him in 2005 before he moved to Montpelier PD in 2006.

His brother, Aaron, was a longtime Hardwick Police Chief, who took early retirement in 2022.