Jail Time For Shorewood Lawyer After Spitting On Teen At 2020 Protest

MILWAUKEE, WI — The Shorewood woman convicted of disorderly conduct after police said she spat on a teen during a 2020 racial justice protest was sentenced to 60 days in jail on Tuesday, according to online court records.

Stephanie Rapkin, 67, was found guilty by a jury after a three-day trial in April. Video caught the June 2020 encounter where the then-64-year-old attorney from Shorewood spat on a Black teen during a peaceful protest on Oakland Avenue.

After being spat on, then-Shorewood High School student Eric Lucas told reporters he was mentally and physically shaken.

"To be assaulted by an adult in my own community during a pandemic was traumatic," Lucas told reporters at the time. "Again and again I am viewed not as a child but as a color."

Rapkin declined probation during a sentencing hearing Tuesday and was sentenced to 60 days in the House of Correction with 4 days served credit, online court records said. The conditions of a yearlong probation would have included 100 hours of community service and 30 days in the House of Correction, records said.

Rapkin told the court at sentencing she can't leave her house because of death threats, "Nobody wants me to volunteer... It's not viable, would rather go to jail right now and to take care of it," according to a report by WISN12.

Police at the time of the incident said Rapkin was arrested after the spitting, and then again less than 24 hours later after kneeing an officer. Court records note Rapkin is expected back for a jury trial later this year in connection with a felony charge of battery or threat to an officer.

A report by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel soon after the trial in April noted that Rapkin's attorneys argued for self-defense, while prosecuting Assistant District Attorney Jim Griffin asserted she had other options like leaving the situation or not spitting.

The Journal Sentinel on Tuesday noted that Rapkin denied spitting during her April jury trial, and said she spat on the ground in front of Lucas.

Rapkin told the court at trial she was driving home when she encountered the protest and tried to get her car away from the traffic, but "freaked out," got out of the car, and felt unsafe, according to a report by FOX6 Now in April.