Governor Josh Shapiro of Abington Township is facing a federal lawsuit filed by his neighbors on Monday.
The lawsuit involves the roughly $1 million in security upgrades at his private residence following the arson attack on the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg in April.
Jeremy and Simone Mock, who filed the 11-page suit and whose property is adjacent to the Shapiros’, are accusing the governor and his wife, Lori, of illegally occupying part of their yard to build an eight-foot security fence.
According to the lawsuit, the planned location of the fence is on the Mocks’ property “unlawfully”. They claim that the Shapiros discussed the fence’s construction with them in July and were interested in purchasing a portion of the Mocks’ property to construct it.
The couples couldn’t agree on the price and discussed the possibility of the Shapiros leasing it. In August, the Shapiros’ attorney told the Mocks they would obtain the chunk of land through “alternative actions.”
“What followed was an outrageous abuse of power by the sitting Governor of Pennsylvania and its former Attorney General,” the complaint says. “The Shapiros continue to occupy the Mock Property without permission or any legal justification whatsoever.”
Screenshots from the Mocks’ lawsuit
“Worse and most egregiously, upon information and belief, Gov. Shapiro personally directed the State Police to patrol the Mock property,” according to the lawsuit, which includes a picture of two troopers standing at the alleged disputed site. “On multiple occasions, when the Mocks have attempted to use their property, the State Police have insisted the area was ‘disputed’ and told them to immediately exit their property.”
The Mocks seek damages as well as an injunction on the Shapiros from using the property.
The lawsuit is below:
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Shapiros filed a countersuit in which they asked a judge to declare that the property is theirs.
The countersuit claims that “a land surveyor discovered in summer 2025 that the Mocks actually owned about 2,900 sf of land that the Shapiros had believed was a part of their property since they bought the home in 2003,” The Inquirer wrote. “That time period, 22 years, satisfies Pennsylvania’s adverse possession law. The Mocks didn’t consider that part of the property to be theirs, according to the complaint, until the Shapiros told them.”
According to Spotlight PA, Shapiro alleged that the Mocks “had not used or maintained it [the parcel] since moving into their house in 2017, nor had they voiced any objection to the Shapiros using it as their own.”
“The Governor looks forward to a swift resolution and will not be bullied by anyone trying to score cheap political points, especially at the expense of his family’s safety and wellbeing,” Will Simons, a spokesperson for Shapiro, said in a statement.
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