Suit Tossed For Ex-Super Who Pooped Under Holmdel Bleachers

HOLMDEL, NJ — The lawsuit filed by the infamous "pooping superintendent" against the Holmdel police department has been thrown out by a federal judge.

The lawsuit was filed earlier this year by Thomas Tramaglini, the former Kenilworth schools superintendent who argued the Holmdel police department sought to humiliate him when it took his mugshot after charging him with defecating on the track at Holmdel High School.

Tramaglini, 43, who lives in Matawan, said Holmdel police only took his mugshot to humiliate him, and the photo was somehow mysteriously leaked to the media. He said all the resulting "sensational" media attention caused him to lose his $147,504-a-year job as superintendent of the school district.

Holmdel Police Chief John Mioduszewski, Holmdel High School resource officer Jonathan Martin and Holmdel Township were all named as defendants in the lawsuit. They asked a federal judge to dismiss the case and on Sept. 9, U.S. District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson agreed, writing in her decision:

"First, the disclosure of a mug shot itself does not reveal any information that was not already public. A mug shot merely provides a visual of someone with pending charges, and plaintiff does not allege that his pending charges were nonpublic. Second, a mug shot is not based in text. Its disclosure, without anything more, is less likely to facilitate false or inaccurate reporting about the defendant or his pending charges."

The judge doesn't stop there. She continued:

Tramaglini "fails to address any connection between the alleged distribution of the mug shot and the alleged injury suffered, his termination," she wrote. "The sensational media coverage he received seems to have stemmed from the evocative nature of (his) public defecation charge — a charge to which he eventually pleaded guilty — coupled with the fact that (he) was a superintendent at a different school district. ... It is not clear how the mug shot — a simple neck-up photograph — plausibly could have caused any inaccurate reporting."

In Thompson's decision, she breaks down the entire events of that fateful day, May 1, 2018: Tramaglini was doing his daily jog just before dawn, as the track is open to the public for use before and after school hours.

Holmdel High staff previously had found feces in various locations around the track and football field on several occasions. Martin, the school resource officer, hid near the field that day and set up a video camera. He said he found "fresh feces under the bleachers near the track," the judge said.

At 5:30 a.m., Martin confronted Tramaglini, who was running around the track at the time. Tramaglini immediately apologized and explained that he had “experience[d] the immediate and emergent need to defecate” while running and did so under the bleachers. Tramaglini later said in court he has a documented medical condition that affects his bowel movements when he runs. He said the condition has worsened as he's aged.

Martin asked that Tramaglini meet him at Holmdel police headquarters, and Tramaglini agreed and drove his own car to the police station.

Tramaglini ultimately was charged with three municipal offenses: public urination/defecation, littering and lewdness. Tramaglini eventually pleaded guilty to public defecation and paid a $500 fine; the remaining charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

"The next day or so, on May 2 or 3, 2018, media outlets 'around the world' began reporting on Plaintiff’s public defecation charge and disseminating the associated mug shot," the judge said. "Plaintiff alleges that media outlets sensationalized, and even falsely reported about, his charges. Plaintiff surmises that this media coverage was fueled by the mug shot. As a result of the negative and embarrassing media coverage, plaintiff, a superintendent at a different school district at the time, was forced to resign from his position."

But the federal judge disagreed, saying it was the sensational nature of the incident itself — and not the release of his mugshot — that caused Tramaglini to lose his job.

"Simply put, it can hardly be argued that but for the distribution of the mug shot the sensational media coverage and Tramaglini's termination would not have transpired."

Last year, the Kenilworth Board of Education released a statement a few weeks after the incident saying, based on events "unrelated to his service" for the district, "it has become clear to both Dr. Tramaglini and the Kenilworth Board of Education that his continued service as superintendent of schools has become too much of a distraction to the main mission of the district."

Even with the latest setback, Tramaglini and his lawyer, Matt Adams of Morristown law firm Fox Rothschild, are not going away.

"A new complaint is forthcoming in state court," Adams told the Asbury Park Press this week. "Holmdel Township will be held accountable for its clear violations of established law."

Adams previously filed court documents claiming potential damages of more than $1 million as well as emotional distress and invasion of privacy. He's also asked the New Jersey Attorney General to investigate the Holmdel police department over this case, but so far it appears the attorney general's office has not taken up his request.

After he quit, Tramaglini received $100,000 in severance from Kenilworth public schools. He previously worked in the Keansburg school system and he used to be a part-time lecturer at Rutgers, as well.

Worth a read:

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