HOLMDEL — A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit by the former Kenilworth school superintendent against police for releasing his mugshot after his arrest for defecating on the high school track.

Thomas Tramaglini, who lives in Matawan, gained notoriety in April 2018 when he was charged with lewdness, littering and defecating in public after a Holmdel High School employee investigated a report of human feces being found on or near the track on a daily basis.

Police said their investigation using surveillance video identified Tramaglini as the person responsible for the incidents.

The former Kenilworth superintendent claimed in his lawsuit that the release of his mugshot by Holmdel police brought further unwanted attention to him and his family and cost him his job.

The Asbury Park Press in August 2018 reported that Tramaglini was paid more than $24,500 in two months' salary and more than $23,800 for 42 days of unused vacation in exchange for his resignation. He also was paid $61,460 for the months he was suspended after his arrest.

According to a copy of the decision, the judge said it wasn’t the picture that triggered attention to his arrest but the “evocative nature of plaintiff’s public defecation charge—a charge to which he eventually pleaded guilty—coupled with the fact that plaintiff was a superintendent at a different school district.”

In October 2018 in Holmdel Municipal Court, Tramaglini said he suffered from a medical condition called runner's diarrhea and entered a guilty plea to defecating in public.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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