By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

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.

In Levy's view, the conflict began in 1993, when a code enforcement officer placed an orange sticker on one of his vans, saying he had seven days to move it or it would be towed.

Levy said he went to Town Hall, met with the officer and asked to see which ordinance he had violated. The officer wouldn't let him see the written law, although he read it aloud, Levy said. Levy said he wrote to a superior protesting the sticker and got no response. The truck wasn't towed, and Levy thought that was that.

In 1997, he received a series of tickets and the towings began. Even though each ticket has been dismissed, Levy said he has had to pay more than $1,000 over the years -- $150 to $225 for every vehicle that has been towed.

On the advice of Karpinski, Hanko declined to talk about Levy or the lawsuit. But in an interview, Hanko spoke enthusiastically about the charms of New Carrollton, which has a population of 12,800. "It's the greatest place to raise a family," he said.

Hanko, 77, also praised the police force, which was created about two years ago. "An excellent force," he said. "I'm really proud of them."

Some of the officers are named in the lawsuit. They either declined to comment or did not respond to phone messages.

Three of Levy's neighbors -- two of whom said they signed petitions -- said in interviews that they considered some of the vehicles eyesores and worried that the larger ones could make it difficult for emergency vehicles to pass. None of the neighbors knew of any accidents that could be attributed to the vehicles.

Neighbor Richard Salamy, 50, said he was unaware of the feud, the towing and ticketing, the arrests and now the federal lawsuit. "That's pretty wild," Salamy said. "If you ask me, it's not that big a deal. They're an inconvenience for us."