Attorney who spat at teen BLM leader gets $760K for botched arrest

A Wisconsin lawyer who spat at a teen Black Lives Matter protest leader has been awarded $760,000 because cops wrongly burst into her home with guns drawn to arrest her without a warrant.

Stephanie Rapkin eventually served 60 days in jail after being filmed spitting on a high schooler during a tense showdown at a march in Shorewood on June 6, 2020.

But she was not arrested until the day after the spitting incident when protesters showed up at her home “to confront her” and “verbally berate her” — with one accusing her of pushing him, according to a complaint shared by the Atlanta Black Star.

The 20-year-old accuser called cops, with one of the responding officers heard on body 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 30 minutes knocking on the lawyer’s doors and windows while discussing p[plans to arrest her, the suit said.

“If she comes out, arrest her,” one officer said. 

The cops then “conspired to come up with a justification to break into her house” without a search warrant, the complaint states.

When a neighbor told cops that Rapkin had taken sleeping medication, they used that as justification to break into her home, calling it a welfare check, the suit said.

Bodycam footage shows cops forcing their way in through the front door with guns and tasers drawn — with the lawyer asking from the top 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 said. She denied taking any medication and said she wanted them to leave so she could go back to sleep.

Police then arrested Rapkin in her living room, during which one cop claimed she kneed him in the groin while Raskin alleges the officers shoved her against a wall and screamed in her face.

She was escorted outside and stuffed in the back of a police cruiser as protesters cheered.

Felony assault charges against Rapkin for allegedly kicking the officer were later dropped.

She filed a complaint against the Sherwood Police Department in 2023 for violating her Fourth Amendment 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 judge ruled.

“The police officers had a really easy route to avoid trouble, which is just call a judge,” Rapkin’s attorney, James Odell, told TMJ4.