(LifeSiteNews) — Mark Houck, the pro-life Catholic father of seven who was subjected to a raid by heavily armed FBI agents, is appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking damages from the Justice Department for traumatizing his family and carrying out a “malicious and retaliatory prosecution” against him.
A little over a year ago, Houck filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking to collect more than $4 million in damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). In his lawsuit, he detailed lasting distress incurred by himself, his wife, and his children after a terrifying dawn FBI raid.
Houck’s arrest and home raid on September 23, 2022, stemmed from charges for a minor altercation with an abortion “escort” outside a Planned Parenthood facility in 2021. Houck, a pro-life sidewalk counselor, pleaded not guilty to both charges and was fully acquitted by a unanimous jury.
However, Houck says he, his wife, and his children are still suffering from what he described as a “scary and traumatic” home raid. The father has said he continues to suffer “severe anxiety,” while his wife, Ryan-Marie, has panic attacks when “[un]announced visitors” come to the home. She has since suffered three miscarriages, allegedly due to stress. The couple’s children suffer from sleeping problems, including nightmares, and now “most take medication to sleep.”
Ryan-Marie has previously recounted what happened when her husband opened the door to heavily armed federal agents: “Immediately, there’s guns pointed at him, a gun pointed at me on the staircase, and then another gun over our threshold kind of scanning the home. Our children were right there,” Ryan-Marie explained. “So, essentially, they had guns pointed at [the children]. It’s hard to even wrap my mind still around that thought.”
When Houck’s nine-year-old daughter also “rushed to see what was happening” and saw two federal agents through the backdoor window, one of whom pointed his gun at her, “She screamed in terror,” according to his lawsuit. When the rest of the Houck children saw the agents with guns pointed at their parents, they began “to scream.”
Houck has lost speaking engagements and business opportunities after his professional reputation was “tarnished” due to his arrest and prosecution.
In his FTCA lawsuit, Houck accused the DOJ of malicious prosecution, retaliatory prosecution, false arrest, and abuse of process.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond, a Bush appointee, dismissed Houck’s case, alleging that “none” of his claims are “plausible.”
Houck is now seeking recourse with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
“You live in fear of it happening again, not only to yourselves but to others, and you want to know that this administration, which rode this message to the White House, is willing to step in,” Houck told Fox News.
Shawn Carney of 40 Days for Life, which is backing the lawsuit, added, “We are appealing the decision of the judge to continue the lawsuit against the DOJ. And of course, if we could get back on track with that, the idea is that then we would be able to settle with DOJ, since they want to settle.”