The attorney for the former school superintendent who defecated under the bleachers at a local high school has called on New Jersey’s attorney general to open an investigation into the Holmdel police department for their “unauthorized taking and subsequent leaking“ of the man’s mugshot.

“The Holmdel Police Department’s actions were the height of willful misconduct, professional irresponsibility, and a total disdain for the law,” Matthew Adams wrote in a 10-page letter to Attorney General Gubir Grewal on Monday.

The letter continued, “(Thomas Tramaglini’s) life, effectively, has been ruined.”

The story of Tramaglini’s public pooping at Holmdel High School quickly went viral, after a booking photo of the former Kenilworth Public Schools superintendent was posted on the Holmdel Police Department’s Facebook page in May 2018. In the Facebook post, the Holmdel Police Department identified Tramaglini as the suspect responsible for the “human feces” found near the school’s track/football field “on a daily basis.”

The story quickly captured worldwide attention, with nicknames such as “Mystery Pooper” and “Pooperintendent” bestowed upon Tramaglini and late night talk show hosts making fun of him.

Adams’ call for an investigation is centered around the taking of Tramaglini’s mugshot and then the release of the photo to news outlets. Adams said this “type of police misconduct outlined undermines our criminal justice system.”

The mugshot of Tramaglini released by the Holmdel Police Department (File photo)

Adams wrote that his law firm requested copies of all arrest reports and complaint/summonses for littering and public urination/defecation from January 2007 to August 2018 in Holmdel. In the letter, he said there was “not a single instance” of those same violations that resulted in the “dissemination of a booking photograph” like Tramaglini’s.

He also said that a mugshot like the one taken of Tramaglini is not to be released publicly under state law, based on a executive order signed by then-Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in 1997.

(No statewide directive on mugshots exists and individual municipalities and counties handle their release differently. Executive Order 69 says that the following should not be public record: “fingerprint cards, plates and photographs and similar criminal investigation records that are required to be made, maintained or kept by any State or local governmental agency.” A 2013 bill that would have banned the release of mugshots prior to conviction passed the N.J. State Assembly, but was never brought to a vote in the Senate.)

On Oct. 24, 2018 Tramaglini pleaded guilty to a single count of defecating under the bleachers at Holmdel High School on May 1. His lawyers claims that it was “in the midst of a medical emergency.” He paid a $500 fine.

Since the incident, Tramaglini stepped down from his position as the superintendent at Kenilworth Public Schools.

“There is no way for Dr. Tramaglini to cleanse the internet of what the Holmdel Police Department has so maliciously done to harm him, and the Holmdel Police Department must be held accountable,” Adams wrote in the letter.

A spokesman for the attorney general said the letter would be forwarded to the appropriate people for review and they did not have any further comment on the matter.

Joe Atmonavage may be reached atjatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow on Twitter @monavage. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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