Man From ‘Mystery Pooper’ Case Sues Over Mugshot

The New Jersey man who pled guilty last year to charges that he was the “mystery pooper” who defecated several times on and near a high school track has filed a lawsuit after the release of his mugshot.

According to an Asssociated Press story published by the Allentown Morning Call, Thomas Tramaglini, the former superintendent of schools in Kenilworth, N.J., has filed a federal lawsuit against the local police department that released his mugshot following his arrest last year.

In the suit, Tramaglini claims that New Jersey law disallows the taking and release of mugshots of those accused of “low-level offenses.” In 2018, the former superintendent pled guilty to a single count of relieving himself in public and he paid a $500 fine. He also resigned from his position as superintendent.

The so-called “mystery pooper” case drew headlines in New Jersey throughout the early part of 2018, as school resource officers at Holmdel High School were “finding human feces on or near the football field and track on a daily basis,” according to Time magazine. After police began surveillance of the area, Tramaglini was last year on a May morning. He was inititally charged with lewdness, public urination/defecation and dumping of litter, although he pled guilty only to public defecation.

Holmdel High School is not one of the schools that was part of the district Tramaglini oversaw as superintendent. The two towns, in fact, are 30 miles apart.

In an interview last October with NJ.com, Tramaglini claimed that he suffers from a condition known as “runner’s diarrhea,” and that the only time he ever defecated at the Holmdel athletic complex was on the day he was arrested. The father of two also said that he was in line to sign a five-year contract at the time of his arrest, but instead lost his job.

This is called being stuck on stupid. “School chief outed as 'mystery pooper' says life is 'ruined'”… https://t.co/tl2BUQZ8bh

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 27, 2019

There have been several other similar cases around the country in recent years. A “Mad Pooper” was active in Colorado Springs, Colo., known to be a woman who defecated on various properties in that city throughout 2017. The “Mad Pooper” was neither identified nor caught, per KKTV.

A “Bowel Movement Bandit” was acccused of pooping on numerous cars in the Akron, Ohio, area over the course of several years, per Cleveland.com. Another such pooper plagued the lawns of Toronto’s Queen West neighborhood throughout 2018, per The Global News. And in New York City earlier this year, another mystery pooper began attacking audition rooms at Broadway shows, per The New York Post.