TRENTON - A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by a former North Jersey schools superintendent who claimed Holmdel police violated his rights by leaking his mug shot to media outlets after he was cited for defecating on the Holmdel High School athletic field.

Thomas W. Tramaglini, 43, of Aberdeen, claimed in his lawsuit that dissemination of his mug shot following the May 1, 2018, incident gave rise to inaccurate and sensationalized media coverage that went viral around the globe.

Tramaglini, whose unflattering media nicknames included “super pooper" and “pooperintendent" claimed that “sophomoric news stories," accompanied by his mug shot, ultimately forced him to resign from his $147,504-a-year position as schools superintendent in Kenilworth, Union County, ending a 20-year career in public education.

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But U.S. District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson, in an opinion dated Sept. 9, said Tramaglini failed to show a connection between the alleged distribution of his mug shot and the termination of his employment.

“The sensational media coverage he received seems to have stemmed from 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," Thompson wrote in the opinion.

“It is not clear how the mug shot — a simple neck-up photograph — plausibly could have caused any inaccurate reporting, and plaintiff does not allege that defendants publicly distributed any inaccurate information," the judge wrote. “Simply put, it can hardly be argued that but for the distribution of the mug shot — the only constitutionally deficient behavior alleged — the sensational media coverage and plaintiff’s termination would have transpired."

The judge rejected Tramaglini’s claim that the dissemination of his mug shot violated his federal rights to privacy and due process.

Other claims made in the lawsuit, including negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation and negligent hiring, training and supervision, belong in state court, not federal court, Thompson said in the opinion. Thompson could have exercised jurisdiction over the state claims, but she declined, leaving the door open for Tramaglini to file suit in state court.

"A new complaint is forthcoming in state court,'' Matthew S. Adams, an attorney representing Tramaglini, said in an email. "Holmdel Township will be held accountable for its clear violations of established law.''

Attempts to reach township officials for comment were not immediately successful.

The federal lawsuit, filed by Adams and Marissa Koblitz Kingman of the Morristown law firm Fox Rothschild, named Holmdel Township and Patrolman Jonathan C. Martin and Police Chief John Mioduszewski of the township’s police force as defendants.

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The attorneys first filed a tort claim notice with Holmdel Township stating they were seeking $1 million in damages for Tramaglini.

Martin is the school resource officer assigned to Holmdel High School who investigated complaints from high school staff about their daily discovery of feces at various locations around the track and football field. After finding fresh feces under bleachers near the track about 5:30 a.m. on May 1, 2018, Martin confronted Tramaglini, who was running around the track at the time.

Tramaglini “immediately apologized and explained that he had ‘experienced the immediate and emergent need to defecate’ while running and did so under the bleachers," Thompson recounted in her opinion.

Tramaglini was charged with public defecation littering and lewdness. He subsequently pleaded guilty to public defecation and paid a $500 fine. He later lamented to news media that his "bathroom emergency" ruined his life.

In rejecting Tramaglini’s argument that distributing his mug shot to the media violated his federal privacy rights, Thompson said, “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," the judge wrote. “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. Third, a mug shot is not the type of ‘highly personal matter representing the most intimate aspects of human affairs’ that historically has been protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Tramaglini’s attorneys also claimed in court filings that their client now faces the loss of his occupational license, but there has been no allegation that he has actually lost the license, the judge noted.

“Such hypothetical harms cannot be addressed by this court," Thompson said.

“More importantly, the Third Circuit has held that even a tenured professorship at a state university — quite a far cry from a non-tenured superintendent — is not afforded a constitutional protection under substantive due process."

Thompson granted Tramaglini 14 days from her Sept. 9 order dismissing the suit to file an amended complaint correcting deficiencies in his original complaint. No such amended complaint has been filed, according to the electronic public access service of the federal courts system.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues, unsolved mysteries and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com; 732-643-4202.