PURCELLVILLE — A federal judge on Friday, May 29, dismissed the $41.4 million civil rights lawsuit that suspended Vice Mayor Carl “Ben” Nett filed against seven Purcellville town officials. Because the dismissal was entered without prejudice, it closes the case at the district-court level but leaves Nett the option to refile, keeping open one of the many legal fronts in the conflict that has consumed town government for more than a year.
The suit, filed Jan. 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and assigned to U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, named seven town-affiliated defendants in both their individual and official capacities: Town Council members Erin Rayner, Caleb Stought and Kevin Wright; Assistant Town Manager Diana Hays; Human Resources Director LaDonna Snellbaker; Interim Police Chief Sara Lombraña; and Police Lt. Michael Holman. Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney R.D. “Bob” Anderson was named as an eighth defendant.
The court dismissed the case Friday without prejudice, meaning the ruling does not permanently bar the claims and Nett could seek to refile rather than being shut out for good.
In dismissing the suit, the judge found that the claims lacked merit as a federal case and that the underlying dispute belongs at the state and local level rather than in federal court. The ruling indicated that Nett should first complete the town’s grievance panel process before bringing any new action, and that even then the appropriate venue would be local court — not federal court. That reasoning is consistent with the without-prejudice nature of the dismissal: the court closed the federal case as improperly brought there while leaving Nett a path to pursue the matter through the proper channels.
What the Lawsuit Alleged
Nett’s 51-page complaint, brought by attorney John C. Cook, set out 14 counts and alleged a coordinated campaign of political retaliation against him after he announced his 2024 candidacy for Town Council. The claims included denial of due process, retaliation for the exercise of First Amendment rights, civil rights violations under color of law, breach of contract, tortious interference with business expectancy, statutory and common-law conspiracy, and defamation.
Nett, who was serving as a sworn Purcellville police officer when he took office in January 2025, asked the court to overturn his April 2025 termination from the Police Department, to allow him to contest that firing, and to enforce a town grievance panel’s unanimous decision that he said called for his reinstatement. He has characterized the actions against him as politically motivated, tied to his reform agenda and his alignment with Mayor Christopher Bertaut.
A Year of Overlapping Litigation
The federal case was one piece of a sprawling web of litigation. Anderson, Lombraña, Hays and Snellbaker have separately filed defamation suits against Nett in Loudoun County Circuit Court. Anderson, named as a defendant in the federal suit, had filed his own motion to dismiss the claims against him on April 6.
Nett’s legal troubles extend well beyond the civil docket. He was placed on administrative leave in February 2025, fired on April 4, 2025, and later added to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Brady list, which flags officers whose testimony may be challenged in court. In July 2025 he was arrested on felony charges including multiple counts of misusing a law-enforcement database, bid-rigging and commercial fraud, with trials scheduled for October and December.
Separately, a residents’ group known as the Qualified Voters of Purcellville pursued a recall petition against him. After a six-day jury trial that ran April 20–27, the jury returned a split verdict — finding him responsible on a conflict-of-interest matter but declining to remove him from office. Yesterday, Nett was suspended from his council seat under Senate Bill 648, the new state law requiring the suspension of indicted officials in certain small Planning District 8 towns, after the court rejected constitutional challenges to the statute.
