Shorewood attorney accused of spitting on teen enters not guilty plea, $5,000 cash bail returned

SHOREWOOD - Stephanie Rapkin, the Shorewood attorney who spit on a teenager during a Black Lives Matter protest on June 6, entered a not guilty plea during a virtual court appearance on Wednesday, July 29. During the hearing, the court ordered the $5,000 cash previously posted to be returned to the poster. 

Rapkin is charged with disorderly conduct, hate crime -- as well as battery to a law enforcement officer.

Prosecutors say the 64-year-old spit on 17-year-old Eric Lucas, a Shorewood High School student. She is also accused of shoving 21-year-old Joe Friedman on her sidewalk.

According to the criminal complaint, police responded to an incident on Oakland Avenue in Shorewood on Saturday, June 6. They interviewed Eric Lucas. He indicated he and others were walking through Shorewood and he noticed "a group of people yelling at a woman, later identified as Defendant Stephanie Rapkin, telling her to move her car." As Lucas stood with friends several feet from the defendant, the complaint says "the defendant turned and spit at him." Lucas indicated to the police that "the defendant did not say anything to him before she spit."

The complaint indicates the incident was captured on cellphone video. It "shows that no one touched the defendant in any way or threatened her in any way before she spat."

The following day, Sunday, June 7, police went to Rapkin's residence to arrest her. The complaint says "she resisted officers' efforts to place her in handcuffs and during the handcuffing process the defendant kneed (an officer) in the groin."

When questioned about the spitting incident, the complaint says Rapkin "explained that she was a cancer survivor and felt threatened because she was surrounded and they did not have masks on. (The video shows that the defendant did not have a mask on at the time of the spitting incident.) She said they got too close so she spit."

A status conference has been scheduled for Sept. 17.