Lawyer In Pooping Scandal: Why We're Suing Holmdel Police

HOLMDEL, NJ — Thomas Tramaglini, the former superintendent of the Kenilworth school district who was accused of pooping on the Holmdel High School track and football field, has not only received death threats and threats of violence against him, but his family and children have as well, his lawyer told Patch.

Tramaglini has received threats of violence against him, as have his two children, ages 7 and 10, and his ex-wife, his lawyer Matt Adams told Patch. Adams even said he personally has received physical threats as well for merely representing Tramaglini.

"A man's life was destroyed over this," Adams said in a phone interview.

As Patch reported, Tramaglini pleaded guilty last Wednesday to one count of defecation in public; he will pay a $500 fine. When Tramaglini was first arrested on April 30, the Holmdel police said on Facebook that human feces were found on the track and football field "on a daily basis." But Tramaglini only pleaded guilty to one instance and said he has a documented medical condition that makes him have to very urgently use the bathroom when he runs.

"It's been getting worse as I've gotten older," Tramaglini, 42, a Matawan resident, told NJ Advance Media over the weekend. "But I run 40 miles a week and it's not like it happens all the time."

He said he only ever voided his bowels once on Holmdel High property, and that was under the bleachers and it was the day he was arrested. The Holmdel police school resource officer set up a camera and allegedly caught him in the act that morning.

Tramaglini's lawyer also explained to Patch exactly why they plan to file a $1 million lawsuit against the Holmdel police department. An independent law enforcement expert weighed in that he thinks they actually have a pretty good case.

Taking Tramaglini's mugshot and releasing it was punitive and potentially illegal, Adams argues. Police departments in New Jersey only take someone into custody for fingerprinting and a mugshot if they are charged with a criminal offense. However, in the pre-dawn hours of April 30, Tramaglini was brought into Holmdel police headquarters, booked, processed and his mugshot was taken. All of this after he had only been charged with two offenses: Littering and public defecation. Both of those are non-indictable municipal offenses, akin to getting a speeding ticket.

It was only a day later that Tramaglini was notified he was charged with an additional offense, lewdness, which is an indictable crime that would warrant a mugshot being taken. That charge was sent to him in the mail.

"The Holmdel police department either did it to humiliate him or an inexperienced police officer did not know what he was doing," Adams said.

Adams is correct, said one veteran law enforcement officer from a neighboring municipality, who did not want his name used in this article.

"The law clearly lays out when you can take someone's fingerprints and mugshot, and it's only for indictable, more serious crimes where you have to appear in court," said the longtime police officer, a ranking member of his department. "The law only mandates we take mugshots for certain crimes, not municipal offenses."

"And how did that mugshot get leaked to the media?," he continued. "That's what everyone is wondering."

When they booked him, Holmdel police assured Tramaglini his mugshot would only be used for internal purposes, Adams said. But in the days immediately following his arrest, that photo somehow showed up on the town of Keansburg's website. Tramaglini hasn't filed his lawsuit yet, but Adams told NJ Advance Media they filed OPRA requests for any emails and text messages from Holmdel PD that may have included that mugshot.

Tramaglini quit his job as the superintendent of Kenilworth public schools, a job for which he was paid $147,504 a year and was just about to sign a five-year extension to his contract when he was arrested. He received a $100,000 severance but much of that will go to pay for legal fees in his ongoing battle with the Holmdel police department.

"My kids are taking a beating," Tramaglini told NJ Advance Media. "They're being ostracized and teased. That's, by far, the worst part. And you know how people like to Google their names? When they Google theirs, this will always come up."

Ongoing Patch reporting: Ex-Superintendent Admits To Pooping Under Holmdel Bleachers

Was the alleged New Jersey "pooping superintendent" merely afflicted with a case of runner's diarrhea?

All photos taken by Carly Baldwin/Patch