Pooping Superintendent Asks AG To Investigate Leaks In Holmdel PD

HOLMDEL, NJ — The story of Holmdel's "pooping superintendent" has not gone away. The lawyer for Thomas Tramaglini, the former Kenilworth school superintendent who admitted to defecating on the Holmdel High football field last spring, is now asking the New Jersey Attorney General's office to investigate leaks in the Holmdel police department surrounding that case.

"We write to formally request that your office open an investigation into the leaking of certain photographs," wrote Tramaglini's lawyer, Matthew Adams, in a letter sent Monday to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. Adams provided Patch with a copy of that letter. "The malicious and unlawful conduct by one or more representatives of the Holmdel police department achieved exactly what was intended. Dr. Tramaglini's life, effectively, has been ruined."

The issue is over the now-infamous mugshot. Adams argues it was illegal for Holmdel PD to even take Tramaglini's mugshot that day. That booking photo was somehow mysteriously released onto the Internet, and it accompanied the story as it skyrocketed to a global level.

Last October, Tramaglini, a 42-year-old Aberdeen resident, pleaded guilty to one instance of public defecation; he said in court he has a medical condition that affects his bowel movements when he runs. He paid a $500 fine.

Adams has threatened to sue the Holmdel PD, but has not filed anything yet. And it's too early to tell if the Attorney General will launch an investigation. But the entire matter has made Holmdel Township nervous enough that they've hired an outside lawyer, David Schwartz of Eatontown law firm Schwartz and Posnock, to represent them in this issue. Schwartz does criminal defense law, as well as civil rights issues.

"The Township does not comment on matters of pending or threatened litigation," said Schwartz in a statement provided to Patch.

Here's the law: Police departments in New Jersey only take someone into custody for fingerprinting and a mugshot if they are charged with a criminal offense, such as sexual assault, murder, etc. However, in the pre-dawn hours of May 1, 2018 Tramaglini was charged with two municipal violations: Littering and public defecation, after Holmdel High school resource officer Jonathan Martin said he witnessed him pooping underneath the bleachers.

Both littering and public defecation are non-criminal and non-indictable, akin to getting a speeding ticket.

Nonetheless, Tramaglini was brought into Holmdel police headquarters, booked and his mugshot was taken that morning. Tellingly, his lawyer said, Tramaglini was never even fingerprinted that day.

"I've never in my career heard of someone being photographed without being fingerprinted," he told Patch. "This clearly reflects a conscious decision and not a booking error."

Holmdel police sought to deliberately humiliate Tramaglini, Adams argues, and their behavior was malicious.

It wasn't until a day later, May 2, that Holmdel police sent Tramaglini a third charge in the mail, lewdness, a disorderly persons offense. The level of lewdness crime that Tramaglini was charged with does not legally permit a mugshot either, said Adams.

"Executive Order 69, signed into law by then-Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, is well-known to New Jersey law enforcement," said Adams. Executive Order 69 limits what police can share with the public when a crime occurs. "You cannot take a mugshot for municipal offenses and most disorderly persons offenses, with the exception of some disorderly persons offenses like assault in the domestic violence context and shoplifting."

Executive Order 69 is so well-known that Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni even declined to release a mugshot of Colts Neck quadruple murder suspect Paul Caneiro last fall. Caneiro had already been handcuffed and charged with four murders when reporters clamored for his mugshot.

"We cannot release mugshots," said Gramiccioini in a press conference at the time, and his office released the New Jersey DMV driver's license photo of Caneiro instead.

The judge dropped the lewdness charge after Tramaglini pleaded guilty to public defecation.

"These acts of police misconduct undermine the public's trust in the Holmdel Township Police Department," wrote Adams. "Holmdel Township police immediately worked to ensure that Dr. Tramaglini was tried, convicted and executed in the court of public opinion within hours of being issued citations for exceedingly low-level, non-criminal offenses, akin to a traffic ticket."

Adams wants the AG's office to subpoena all email communication from Holmdel Twp. pertaining to that mugshot, and said that if any emails are deleted, it would be akin to destroying evidence.

"The Holmdel police department is not above the law," said Adams.

As Patch previously reported, 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?," the deputy chief continued. "That's what everyone is wondering."

There is a growing movement to end the practice of police publicly releasing mugshots. Some lawmakers in Trenton are trying to advance a bill that would prohibit police from releasing someone's mugshot until they are convicted or plead guilty. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing an entire "mugshot ban."

When Holmdel police announced the charges on Facebook on May 3, they did not officially release Tramaglini's mugshot. (It is worth noting Holmdel police almost never release mugshots with other arrests they make in their jurisdiction.) But that photo surfaced online somehow just a few short hours later. Who released it?

That's what Tramaglini wants to know.

Worth a read:

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

Ex-Superintendent Admits To Pooping Under Holmdel Bleachers