Man sues area police departments, asks $11 trillion

Plaintiff levels lawsuit on behalf of `all the life on the planet'

Suit seeks $11 trillion

By COURTNEY PREBICH
Journal staff writer

Who wants to be a millionaire? Forget that. Robert Lavelle wants to be a trillionaire.

Lavelle has filed a lawsuit against several Northern Virginia law enforcement agencies for $11 trillion. That's $11 followed by 12 zeros.

He might, however, have a better chance for getting the cash in some television quiz show.

``The reason for this law suite [sic] is the police refuse to enforce the law," Lavelle wrote in the 18-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Prince William Circuit Court. ``I believe their negligence is not only a threat to my life but a threat to all the life of the planet and I demand justice to be done."

Lavelle is seeking $1 trillion each from 11 agencies, including the Prince William, Manassas and Manassas Park police departments and the Prince William sheriff's Office. Virginia State Police, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, Vienna and Herndon police departments are also named, along with the Fairfax County and Loudoun County sheriff's offices.

``I'm glad we have good company," said Sgt. Kim Chinn, a Prince William police spokeswoman. ``I don't think we have a trillion in Prince William County. Do you?"

They don't. The county budget for fiscal year 2000-01 is a mere $435.6 million.

The suit claims police ``refuse to arrest murderers" and makes vague references to world overpopulation. The Virginia Criminal Code is quoted on most of the 18 pages, including sections describing homicide, grand larceny, embezzlement and forging public records. There is no explanation of how such crimes pertain to Lavelle's case.

``Murder is against the law," the suit states.

All of the law enforcement agencies contacted for this article agreed.

Prince William police made arrests in eight of the county's 14 homicides cases in 1999. Three were murder-suicides and three more remain unsolved.

In two unrelated Manassas cases in the past 18 months, city police arrested two men who later pleaded guilty to murdering their wives.

Lavelle, who listed his address as a post office box in Rectortown, Va., in court records, has an unlisted telephone number. He could not be reached for comment.

Prince William County Attorney Sharon Pandak called his suit the most interesting one she has seen in a while.

``The unfortunate thing is we still have to put some person power into it to get it dismissed," Pandak said. ``It shouldn't take much."

Lavelle paid $316 to file the suit, including copying costs and a fee to serve each party named.

``It would have been better to give us the money and we could have used it for more law enforcement," Pandak said.

She recalled a past case in which a man sued over a stray cat and another who sued the county because he was upset his favorite movie theater installed new carpet. He insisted the original carpeting be restored.

Both cases were dismissed, Pandak said.

Lavelle's lawsuit - and its costly demand - was a cause for surprise or annoyance to many law enforcement officials.

``Whoa," said Judy Burke, a Prince William sheriff's office spokeswoman. ``We don't have it. I can tell you that right now."

``Upon reading the complaint, I believe it to be without cause, baseless and frivolous," said Manassas police Chief John J. Skinner.

Virginia State Police, Manassas Park and Fairfax County police declined to comment on the suit, citing pending litigation. When pressed, one official admitted it sounded ``pretty bizarre" and another confessed, ``I wish I had a cajillion dollars."

This area has no monopoly on odd lawsuits. A suit against Gov. Jim Gilmore was filed in Alexandria Circuit Court last month, asserting the governor is responsible for protecting Virginians from space aliens.

Larry Bryant and two others want to ensure that people who claim to have been abducted by extraterrestrials have their day in court and have accused Gilmore of ignoring his duty to ``identify, assess and repel this clandestine invasion within Virginia."

Bryant, like Lavelle, is not represented by a lawyer.

``It's kind of a shame," Burke said of such frivolous lawsuits. ``They waste not only their time. The court has to process it. Somebody has to serve it. It's really a time-wasting exercise. ... We do have to go through all of the motions that we would have to go through if it were legitimate."

``Thank goodness we don't get too many of these."