A Wisconsin lawyer who spat at a teen Black Lives Matter protest chief has been awarded $760,000 as a result of cops wrongly burst into her residence with weapons drawn to arrest her with no warrant.
Stephanie Rapkin finally served 60 days in jail after being filmed spitting on a excessive schooler throughout a tense showdown at a march in Shorewood on June 6, 2020.
However she was not arrested till the day after the spitting incident when protesters confirmed up at her residence “to confront her” and “verbally berate her” — with one accusing her of pushing him, in accordance with a grievance shared by the Atlanta Black Star.
The 20-year-old accuser known as cops, with one of many responding officers heard on physique cam saying: “This is the chick that did the spitting in the kid’s face.”
After reviewing video of the alleged push, cops then spent half-hour knocking on the lawyer’s doorways and home windows whereas discussing p[plans to arrest her, the swimsuit mentioned.
“If she comes out, arrest her,” one officer mentioned.
The cops then “conspired to come up with a justification to break into her house” with no search warrant, the grievance states.
When a neighbor informed cops that Rapkin had taken sleeping treatment, they used that as justification to interrupt into her residence, calling it a welfare examine, the swimsuit mentioned.
Bodycam footage reveals cops forcing their method in via the entrance door with weapons and tasers drawn — with the lawyer asking from the highest of her stairs: “Gentlemen, do you have a warrant?”
“We’re here for a community caretaker, OK?” an officer replied.
“I’m perfectly fine. I’m sleeping.” Rapkin mentioned. She denied taking any treatment and mentioned she wished them to depart so she may return to sleep.
Police then arrested Rapkin in her lounge, throughout which one cop claimed she kneed him within the groin whereas Raskin alleges the officers shoved her in opposition to a wall and screamed in her face.
She was escorted outdoors and stuffed at the back of a police cruiser as protesters cheered.
Felony assault costs in opposition to Rapkin for allegedly kicking the officer had been later dropped.
She filed a grievance in opposition to the Sherwood Police Division in 2023 for violating her Fourth Modification rights.
“A reasonable officer would have … come to the conclusion that either you need to get a warrant or wait till her attorney brings her down to the station house to talk. Period,” a decide dominated.
“The police officers had a really easy route to avoid trouble, which is just call a judge,” Rapkin’s lawyer, James Odell, informed TMJ4.
