{"id":111212,"date":"2026-02-11T16:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/111212\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:31:07","slug":"shapiro-neighbors-trade-lawsuits-over-disputed-area-at-governors-private-montgomery-county-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/111212\/","title":{"rendered":"Shapiro, neighbors trade lawsuits over \u2018disputed area\u2019 at governor\u2019s private Montgomery County home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HARRISBURG \u2014 For the past six months, Gov. Josh Shapiro has been entangled in an intense but largely behind-the-scenes property dispute with one of his neighbors in Montgomery County.<\/p>\n

On Monday, that dispute spilled into the public domain in dramatic fashion with a pair of dueling lawsuits that allege everything from harassment to trespassing to politics to abuse of power.<\/p>\n

On the one side are Shapiro\u2019s neighbors, Montgomery County residents Jeremy and Simone Mock, who on Monday filed a federal lawsuit alleging the Democratic governor abused the power of his position and unlawfully took possession of part of their property to make security upgrades following last year\u2019s brazen arson attack on the first family.<\/p>\n

The Mocks allege Shapiro even deployed Pennsylvania State Police troopers to patrol the disputed piece of land.<\/p>\n

On the other side are Shapiro and his wife, Lori, who on Monday countersued in Montgomery County\u2019s Court of Common Pleas, asserting they\u2019ve maintained the disputed parcel of land during the nearly 25 years they\u2019ve lived there and own it \u201cas a matter of law by adverse possession.\u201d They also claim the Mocks harassed them over the summer with signs along the disputed area.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the governor called the Mock\u2019s lawsuit \u201ca shameless political stunt,\u201d citing the couple\u2019s attorney\u2019s involvement in 2020 election-related litigation.<\/p>\n

The dueling lawsuits over a relatively prosaic issue could end up being an unwelcome distraction for Shapiro, who just published his memoir and is widely expected to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.<\/p>\n

The dispute involves a roughly 3,000-square-foot area along the boundary line between the Shapiros and the Mocks. The Shapiros allege in their lawsuit that when they purchased their family home there in 2003, there was a fence, and that a tree line just beyond it separated their property from the Mocks.<\/p>\n

This summer, the Shapiros discovered that the parcel they always thought was theirs fell outside the land their deed said they owned.<\/p>\n

At the time, the Shapiros were making extensive security upgrades to their private home that State Police recommended in the aftermath of an arson attack at the state-owned governor\u2019s mansion in Harrisburg. That included replacing the old fence with a new one. Spotlight PA has reported the upgrades \u2014 paid for with taxpayer dollars \u2014 cost nearly $1.1 million, and included extensive landscaping along the property.<\/p>\n

The Mocks allege in their lawsuit that the Shapiros approached them in July of last year and said they wanted to purchase the disputed parcel. When the households couldn\u2019t agree on a price, they began to discuss the possibility of the Shapiros leasing it.<\/p>\n

But the negotiations broke down. Soon after, a lawyer for the Shapiros contacted the Mocks and told them the Shapiros would be taking \u201calternative actions,\u201d the Mocks allege.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200b\u200bWhat followed was an outrageous abuse of power by the sitting Governor of Pennsylvania and its former Attorney General,\u201d the Mocks say in their 11-page lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Walter S. Zimolong III, the Mocks\u2019 lawyer, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The Mocks allege the Shapiros claimed the disputed land as their own through adverse possession, an arcane real estate process by which a person can take legal title of a property if they can prove they\u2019ve occupied and used it exclusively for a period of time (in Pennsylvania, that is 21 years). Soon after, the Shapiros began planting trees and other plants there, and flying a drone over the Mock property, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorse and most egregiously, upon information and belief, Gov. Shapiro personally directed the State Police to patrol the Mock property,\u201d according to the lawsuit, which also includes a picture of two troopers standing at the alleged disputed site. \u201cOn multiple occasions, when the Mocks have attempted to use their property, the State Police have insisted the area was \u2018disputed\u2019 and told them to immediately exit their property.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their lawsuit, the Shapiros say that once negotiations broke down, they scrapped their plan to erect a new fence and their attorney informed the Mocks they were taking control of the parcel through adverse possession. They allege the Mocks had not used or maintained it since moving into their house in 2017, nor had they voiced any objection to the Shapiros using it as their own.<\/p>\n

The situation allegedly escalated from there. The Shapiros say in their lawsuit that the Mocks decided to build their own fence that would encroach on the disputed parcel. Despite being told they would not have access to it, the Shapiros said the Mocks hired a surveyor who showed up unannounced and was ultimately denied access by the governor\u2019s security detail.<\/p>\n

That is when the Mocks allegedly posted a \u201cprovocative sign\u201d on a tree in the disputed area, claiming it as their own, according to Shapiro\u2019s lawsuit. The Mocks also allegedly contacted local police to have the Shapiros charged with criminal trespass.<\/p>\n

The alleged harassment, the Shapiros\u2019 lawsuit states, \u201cconstitutes a private nuisance,\u201d interferes with the Shapiros\u2019 enjoyment of the property, and \u201cposes an ongoing security threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mocks seek, among other things, damages as well as an injunction on the Shapiros from using the property.<\/p>\n

The Shapiros also seek an injunction, as well as a declaration that the disputed parcel belongs to them. They are also asking for attorneys\u2019 fees and \u201csuch other and further relief as the Court considers just, fair, and equitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

BEFORE YOU GO \u2026 If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org\/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-111212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}