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Bill would pay $10,000 to settle lawsuit over trespassing near Planned Parenthood clinic
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Legislation introduced in Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday would pay $10,000 to settle a federal lawsuit over a trespassing citation filed near a Planned Parenthood clinic last year.
Keith Tucci claimed that a city police officer wrongly cited him for defiant trespass and described him on the ticket as a "known anti-abortion activist."
Mr. Tucci was director of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue from 1990 to 1994. In 2005, as pastor of Living Hope Church in Latrobe, he threatened to defy limits on protests near abortion clinics.
However, Mr. Tucci claimed that on the day the citation was issued, he merely walked through the legislated buffer zone near the Liberty Avenue clinic. The citation, which Mr. Tucci called a violation of his First and 14th Amendment rights, ultimately was dismissed by a district judge.
Under the settlement, the city must train police officers on buffer zone enforcement.
First Published April 13, 2011 12:00 am
