Woman in protest spitting incident asks to move case
The Shorewood woman charged with spitting at a Black teen protester in June has asked that her case be moved out of Milwaukee County and no longer be considered a hate crime.
Stephanie Rapkin, 64, was charged in June with disorderly conduct, with a hate crime enhancer, after video showed her spitting at a young Black teen who had confronted her about blocking marchers with her car on Oakland Avenue.
She is charged with battery on a police officer, a felony, for actions during her arrest outside her home the next day. Rapkin has pleaded not guilty to each count. During a status hearing on her case Wednesday, held via Zoom, her attorney, Jason Luczak, filed motions to strike the hate crime enhancer from the disorderly conduct charge and for a change of venue.
Circuit Judge Glenn Yamahiro set dates for prosecutors to respond. The next hearing date is Nov. 19.
On June 6, Rapkin spat in the face of 17-year-old Eric Lucas. Disorderly conduct is a Class B misdemeanor, but with a hate crime enhancer that raises the maximum penalty to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine — if prosecutors prove the action was racially motivated.
Video of the spitting incident was already spreading on social media and the news when Rapkin was recorded the next day confronting Joe Friedman, who had been writing messages in chalk on the sidewalk outside her home.
Rapkin tells Friedman, a college student home for the summer who was recording their conversation, that she spat at Lucas the day before in response to a physical attack and then demonstrated the supposed attack by appearing to shove Friedman in the chest.
While being arrested in connection with that incident, police say, she kneed an officer in the groin.
Rapkin is a lawyer who practices from a Mequon office.