A 15-Year Battle Over Parked Vehicles Leads to Lawsuit

Mark B. Levy parks his camper on the street outside the New Carrollton home he shares with his parents. He parks a vintage Corvair there, too. Also, a convertible Chrysler LeBaron, two large box vans and two station wagons. Oh, and a 24-foot powerboat.

Not surprisingly, it is a source of friction between Levy and town officials. The 15-year battle, however, is unusual for its intensity: It has included not just towing and citations, but accusations and recriminations, arrests and now a federal lawsuit.

Levy, 42, believes town officials have conspired against him because he successfully challenged a warning in 1993. In a lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Levy accuses town officials of violating his rights and of malicious prosecution. The way Levy sees it, he's been punished for standing up to Town Hall.

"Andy Hanko had to make an example out of me," Levy said in an interview, referring to Andrew C. Hanko, New Carrollton's mayor of 25 years. "It's like, you have to shoot the first guy who stands up because there's 100 guys watching him. The more I won, the more he had to double down."

The town has issued citations for illegal parking or improper registration at least a dozen times and towed his vehicles as many times. Twice in spring 2006, Levy alleges, virtually the entire police force -- a dozen officers -- swarmed his block checking for violations and towed three of his vehicles, including the boat.

Kevin Karpinski, the attorney defending the town, dismisses the allegations as products of an overheated imagination. Neither Hanko nor anyone else in the government has targeted Levy, Karpinski said.

At one point, Karpinski said, Levy went to Hanko's home after midnight and yelled at the mayor -- an allegation Levy denied.

"Mr. Levy is his own worst enemy," Karpinski said. "He seems to relish being in conflict with town officials."

Karpinski said the citations and towings stemmed from code violations and safety issues. The town, he said, has responded over the years to concerns from Levy's neighbors that his vehicles -- especially the large trucks and the boat -- left little room on the street for firetrucks and other emergency vehicles to pass. Neither Hanko nor any city official has a personal issue with Levy, Karpinski said.

Why then, ask Levy and attorney Michael Wein, has every citation been dropped or dismissed by a judge? Why, they ask, has Levy been arrested, charged and tried three times between 1997 and 2001 -- twice for allegedly assaulting a code enforcement officer, once for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia -- only to have each case end in an acquittal?

Whether or not the conflict started over parking tickets, "it was escalated in a way that is unfathomable," Wein said. "It's not right to arrest someone because you're having a disagreement over towings and tickets."

Levy said he manages rental homes owned by his father, Stanley Levy, a retired developer. Their neighborhood, built in the early 1960s, features brick Rambler-style homes and tidy, well-kept yards. Levy has lived there his entire life.