Lawyer in spit incident tried to secretly change name
The Shorewood woman facing criminal charges after spitting at a protester during a Black Lives Matter march last summer recently tried to legally change her name.
Stephanie Rapkin, 64, was charged in June with disorderly conduct, with 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 also charged with battery on a police officer, a felony, for actions she took during her arrest outside her home the next day. Rapkin has pleaded not guilty to each count, and has a pending motion to dismiss the hate crime modifier.
In December, Rapkin filed a confidential petition for a name change. Wisconsin law allows anyone to ask such a change not require the usual publication notice, and avoid having the case appear in the state’s online court records system, under certain conditions.
The Journal Sentinel obtained a copy of the petition and court docket that reflects its denial on Jan. 29.
In the petition, Rapkin, a lawyer, certified that she had contacted the Wisconsin Supreme Court about her name change and that it had not objected. The court grants licenses to practice law in the state.
She said she sought a confidential name change because publication would endanger her for the following reason: “I am continually harassed and refused services based on my name. I am threatened constantly and need to move where I can be safe.”
But after a hearing late last month, Deputy Chief Circuit Judge William Pocan denied the petition. The clerk’s entry to the docket notes Rapkin’s pending criminal case, and that she could repetition for name change after the case concludes.
The state law that allows someone to secretly ask for a new name also reads, “The court may require the petitioner to comply (with public notification) if the petitioner is unable to show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that publication of his or her petition could endanger him or her and that he or she is not seeking a name change in order to avoid a debt or conceal a criminal record.”
According to the Milwaukee County Clerk of Courts office, there were 17 confidential name change petitions last year, usually in the context of domestic violence, a typical annual total, compared to 440 public requests.