Sheriff Lanovich likes to keep things tidy. He likes to keep things benefiting him. As an officer of the law with little oversight, he knows he can literally get away with murder. A classic "good ole boy", Lanovich is an avid practitioner of cronyism. His station is made up of family members and buddies from school rather than competent deputies, while his cousin Kurt runs the big church in town and also owns the radio and television stations. His position is secure, because when campaign time rolls around again, Kurt makes sure Lanovich gets the only coverage. Then there's his buddy in the county office who does the ballot countin' Yup, Sheriff Lanovich is the King of Garterville. He's got himself set up pretty nicely, and the pimps and drug dealers all give him their proper cut. He's only got one major problems: Deputy Susan Edwards.

Ever since Deputy Edwards arrived, Lanovich has had to keep his various operations on the down-low. First problem is she's a lady cop. Nothing worse in Lanovich's eyes than lady cop. Like many other small town males, Lanovich believes a woman's place is in the kitchen, not wearing a badge. Next, she's an outsider; didn't grow up in this town. She wouldn't understand that business has been done this way in Garterville for generations. Worst of all, she was transferred to his department by someone down in the State Capitol so that means someone's using her to keep an eye on him. Much as he'd like to, he can't do away with her because someone in the Capitol would definitely know something's wrong up in the hills. So he settles for keeping her busy.

Enter the prank problem. The pranks have been happening every summer for the past five years and they've been getting worse. Two summers ago all the pools within a ten-mile radius were turned into giant Jell-O molds. How someone got hold of that much gelatine is a mystery, but that prank pales in comparison to last summer's Garterville Mime Riots. Lanovich shudders and blocks that incident from his mind whenever it surfaces. Recently Edwards mentioned she had evidence on the perpetrators of the pranks, but as she had to expend a massive amount of time investigating the case, Lanovich has decided not to do anything about it. If Edwards is busy handling the pranks, she's too busy to spy on him.

Appearance
Lanovich is built like a steer. He was once muscular, but is running to fat and his body is massive and tubular. He's got close-cropped dark hair, a monster moustache and affects mirror shades. Finegan once described his features as "a cross between Bruce Campbell and Ron Jeremy".