Updated June 18, 2026
PURCELLVILLE, Va. Carl Benjamin “Ben” Nett has filed suit against the Town of Purcellville, asking a judge to order the town to put into effect a grievance panel decision that reversed his firing as a town police officer and ordered him reinstated with back pay. The petition was filed June 17, 2026, in Loudoun County Circuit Court as Misc. Action No. CL26-4097.
The filing, titled a Petition for Implementation of Grievance Panel Decision, names the Town of Purcellville as respondent and was served on Town Attorney Robert Sproul. Nett is represented by John C. Cook and Kyle Moodhe of Cook Legal Solutions in Fairfax. The petition asks the court to direct the town to implement the panel decision and to award Nett his costs and attorney’s fees under Virginia Code Section 15.2-1507.
The account that follows is drawn from Nett’s petition, which lays out his allegations. The town has not yet filed a response in this case, and its positions are reflected here only as described in the petition and in a related court opinion.
The Firing and the Grievance
According to the petition, Nett was a Purcellville police officer who also held a seat on the Town Council. It alleges that his fellow council reform allies and his policing role put him at odds with council members and police leadership, and that a January 2025 citizen complaint about his attending a town meeting while on directed patrol was used to open an investigation into him.
The petition states that then-Interim Police Chief Sara Lombraña and Lt. Michael Holman pursued discipline against Nett over that meeting and over his use of sick leave around a Virginia Municipal League conference in Richmond, which he attended after a council colleague offered to drive him. It alleges the town placed Nett on administrative leave for claimed insubordination, issued two “advanced notices of discipline,” and arranged an outside investigation by a Prince William County police sergeant that relied chiefly on a single witness. The petition also alleges the
Commonwealth’s Attorney placed Nett on a Brady/Giglio list of officers with credibility questions without conducting an independent review. Then-Town Manager Kwasi Fraser approved the termination, which took effect April 4, 2025.
What the Grievance Panel Found
Nett grieved his firing under the Town Grievance Policy. After an all-day evidentiary hearing on June 25, 2025, a three-member panel issued a 21-page unanimous decision on June 28, 2025, upholding the grievance in all respects.
According to the petition, the panel rejected each of the five stated reasons for the termination, found that police leadership had failed to follow the town’s progressive discipline requirements, and concluded that the department’s actions were politically motivated. The panel ordered the termination reversed, Nett reinstated with back pay and benefits, and his attorney’s fees paid, capped under the policy at $144 an hour.
A Year of Refusals
The petition alleges the town refused to implement the panel decision and instead spent months seeking a way around it. In August 2025, the town asked the Circuit Court to review whether the relief the panel ordered complied with town policy. On Oct. 27, 2025, Chief Circuit Court Judge Douglas L. Fleming Jr. dismissed that petition, ruling that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to decide the question the town had posed. That case carried the number CL25-6742.
After the court declined to step in, the petition alleges, the matter passed among several town and county officials, including the assistant town manager, the Commonwealth’s Attorney, and a specially appointed prosecutor, none of whom answered the policy question the town’s own grievance process called for. The petition alleges that insurance counsel for the town later proposed scrapping the panel decision and holding a new hearing before a state-appointed officer, that the town declined to give assurances it would honor a future ruling, and that on Jan. 8, 2026, the town said it would take no further action. Nett then sued in federal court; that case was dismissed without prejudice on May 29, 2026, with the court holding he should bring his claims in state court. This petition followed.
What Nett Is Seeking
The petition brings two counts. Count I asks the court to order the town to implement the panel decision, arguing the hearing was conducted under a process the parties had agreed to and that the relief was consistent with the town ordinance and state law. Count II alleges breach of contract, contending the town agreed to a binding process and then failed to complete it. Nett asks the court to find the town breached that agreement, to order implementation of the panel decision, and to award his costs and attorney’s fees.
The Separate Council Seat Fight
The grievance suit concerns Nett’s job as a police officer and is separate from the ongoing effort to remove him from his elected Town Council seat. In an April recall trial, a Loudoun County jury found that Nett violated Virginia’s Conflict of Interest Act and the town’s policies and procedures but declined to remove him from office. Nett remains suspended from that seat pending the resolution of the felony charges against him. The special prosecutor has since asked the court to set the verdict aside and order Nett removed, and Judge Bellows is set to hear that motion on June 30.
What Happens Next
The town will have an opportunity to respond to the petition in Circuit Court, and no hearing date in the grievance case had been set as of publication. The motion to vacate in the separate removal case is scheduled to be heard June 30. Purcellville News will update this story as it develops.
