Lawsuit pest sued by officials

A prisoner who has filed more than 3,800 lawsuits and targeted the famous, the infamous and even the long-dead, is now himself being sued by US officials who want him to stop.

Prosecutors who say they have had enough of the frivolous filings have filed a lawsuit of their own asking a judge to take unusual action against Jonathan Lee Riches.

Since 2006, Riches has filed lawsuits in nearly every jurisdiction in the US, court documents show. The inmate, who dubbed himself "Lawsuit Zeus" in one of his thousands of court cases, has filed up to four of his handwritten petitions a day in Kentucky courts alone.

The 33-year-old inmate at a prison in Lexington, Kentucky, has sued former President George W Bush and even Somali pirates. Sometimes, Riches asks for money, other times an injunction to stop alleged, if physically impossible, activity.

Among Riches' targets have been "Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Party", the ancient philosopher Plato, the celestial body formerly known as the planet Pluto and the Guinness Book of World Records.

The US Attorney's Office in Lexington calls Riches' lawsuits "a waste of judicial resources."