{"id":16036,"date":"2026-04-18T09:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T09:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=16036"},"modified":"2026-04-17T02:24:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:24:49","slug":"pro-life-catholic-father-wins-1-1m-in-settlement-with-doj-over-wrongful-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=16036","title":{"rendered":"Pro-life Catholic father wins $1.1M in settlement with DOJ over wrongful arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Not shown in the story below; the local police declined to make any arrest; there was nothing there. And Houck&#8217;s attorney offered to have him come in to the federal offices. Instead a dozen militarized federal officers showed up to arrest him.<\/em>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mark Houck, a Catholic father and pro-life advocate, has won more than $1 million after suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) over his wrongful arrest, which followed false claims that he violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>*******************<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Zeale News previously <a href=\"https:\/\/zeale.co\/news\/articles\/pro-life-activist-mark-houck-appeals-dismissal-of-lawsuit-against-doj\"><u>reported<\/u><\/a>, Houck and his wife sued the DOJ in 2024 for $4.3 million and argued the Biden administration used \u201cexcessive force\u201d when several FBI agents arrested him at gunpoint at his Pennsylvania home in September 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CatholicVote <a href=\"https:\/\/catholicvote.org\/fbi-arrest-of-pro-life-catholic-dad-ignites-firestorm-of-blowback\/\"><u>reported<\/u><\/a> at the time that Houck was charged with allegedly violating the FACE Act after he stepped in to protect his 12-year-old son from a 72-year-old Planned Parenthood escort who was reportedly verbally harassing and intimidating him. He pushed the escort away from his son, causing the man to fall, but no major injuries were sustained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Pennsylvania jury acquitted Houck of all charges in 2023. Following the decision, Houck and his wife sued, alleging the stress of the arrest caused three miscarriages, an infertility diagnosis, and emotional distress, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/news\/doj-paid-more-than-1-million-settlement-to-anti-abortion-protester-after-a-federal-judge-tossed-his-suit\"><u>according<\/u><\/a> to MS NOW. Catholic World Report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicworldreport.com\/2026\/04\/11\/mark-houck-awarded-seven-figure-settlement-in-lawsuit-against-doj\/\"><u>added<\/u><\/a> that the Houcks also alleged malicious and retaliatory prosecution, abuse of process, false arrest, and assault, as well as loss of reputation and employment opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not shown in the story below; the local police declined to make any arrest; there was nothing there. And Houck&#8217;s attorney offered to have him come in to the federal offices. Instead a dozen militarized federal officers showed up to arrest him. Mark Houck, a Catholic father and pro-life advocate, has won more than $1 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,14,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-stuff","category-consistent-ethic-of-life","category-economics-and-politics","category-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16037,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16036\/revisions\/16037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}