A Wisconsin woman has been awarded $760,000 after suing a Wisconsin police department over her 2020 arrest.
Stephanie Rapkin had been filmed spitting at a Black Lives Matter protester on June 6, 2020, according to the New York Post.
She was arrested by Shorewood police the next day, who came along with a crowd of protesters. A complaint alleged that she emerged from her home and pushed a protester who had come to confront her because of the incident, according to Atlanta Black Star.
NEW: Attorney who spat at a BLM protester wins $760K after police burst into her home without a warrant in 2020
Stephanie Rapkin was initially charged with a hate crime and served 60 days in jail
Protesters confronted her at her house the following day
Police responded, with… pic.twitter.com/mRXJ2XQXNy
— Unlimited L’s (@unlimited_ls) December 6, 2024
“This is the chick that did the spitting in the kid’s face,” one officer said.
Police knocked on Rapkn’s door for about 30 minutes, but she never emerged, leading an officer heard on bodycam footage to say, “If she comes out, arrest her.”
The complaint said police “conspired to come up with a justification to break into her house,” seizing upon a comment from a neighbor that Rapkin may have taken sleeping pills.
“Gentlemen, do you have a warrant?” Rapkin said as police entered.
Even in the face of BLM lunacy, did this woman have the right to spit on another person?
“We’re here for a community caretaker, OK?” an officer replied.
“I’m perfectly fine. I’m sleeping,” Rapkin said, before telling police to leave.
Police arrested Rapkin, who was 63 at the time, and struggled against officers.
Rapkin later served 60 days in jail for spitting at the protester. She sued, claiming a violation of 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.
Her attorney, James Odell, said the case was an example of police misconduct, according to WTMJ-TV.
“I think that if you watch the videotape, I think that reasonable minds could conclude from that that the police officers here had a really easy route to avoid trouble which is just call a judge,” he said.
Odell said police should have left after seeing that Rapkin was not in distress, if that had been their intention.
“You’re not allowed to stick around and hope that you get the opportunity to do police activity when you were really supposed to be there to make sure everyone was safe,” Odell said.
“We understand police officers have to make split-second decisions sometimes to protect us and to catch bad guys – but our claim here is that if you have enough time to sit around and debate what you’re going to do, you have enough time to pick up the phone and call a judge,” he said.
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