NEW YORK -- 'Preppie killer' Robert Chambers, in a 'symbol of genuine sorrow,' told a judge Wednesday he would not fight a $25 million lawsuit filed by the family of the young woman he strangled in Central Park.
The motion, filed in state Supreme Court, will result in a default judgment against the imprisoned Chambers, meaning he will lose all his assets for life to satisfy the $25 million claim.
'It is a pathetic victory,' said Harry Lipsig, an attorney who filed the wrongful death suit on behalf of Steven and Ellen Levin, the divorced parents of Jennifer Levin.
He called Chambers's decision a ploy to 'alleviate the stigma of his villainous conduct before the public.'
Chambers's attorney, Brian O'Dwyer, said he advised him against the move but the prep school graduate insisted.
In a handwritten letter to the court, Chambers, 21, said, 'My only wish is for the nightmare to end for both families and friends. I do not wish the Levins to endure any more pain.'
The Levins on July 22 filed a $25 million lawsuit against Chambers, saying they hoped to use any monies recovered to start a victims' rights fund.
But Chambers, in court documents filed Wednesday, said that lawyers' bills had consumed all of his assets.
'However, he hoped that this action might be seen to others as a symbol of the genuine sorrow he felt about the death of Jennifer Levin and he knew it would live with him every day and hour of his life,' O'Dwyer said in the court documents.
Chambers, who initially claimed he accidently killed Levin, 18, during rough sex in Central Park, tearfully interrupted jury deliberations in his murder trial March 25 to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter. He is serving a five- to 15-year sentence at Great Meadows Correctional Facility in Comstock.
Chambers, who wore prison-issued green work pants and a yellow cotton shirt when he met with O'Dwyer, applied to Skidmore College to start fall courses and hopes to become a teacher when he is freed from prison.
'It is his hope that with an education, he may be able to pursue a career which will prevent young people from pursuing a path which led to such disastrous consequences to Jennifer Levin, and the ruination of his life.
'He wants to use his education to help young people understand the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse,' said O'Dwyer of Chambers, who has been treated for cocaine addiction.
The Levins also have filed a $25 million suit against Jack Dorrian, the owner of the upper East Side bar where Chambers met Levin and drank heavily on the night of the Aug. 26, 1986, slaying. At the time, both were under the legal drinking age of 21.
