Civil Case Settlement for Spitting Incident at ‘Black Lives Matter’ Protest Falls Short for Victim
A black guy in his teens was spit on by a white woman in her 60s during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. He is unhappy with the amount of the settlement in the civil case that it led to.
The victim used to be called Eric Lucas III. He or she is now 22 years old. The judge changed his name officially in 2023 because the case got so much attention, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said. To protect his privacy, his new name has not been made public.
William Sulton, an attorney, says that Stephanie Rapkin, 67, didn’t give his client what was due for the shame and emotional pain she caused him when she spit on him while he was leading a protest with his high school friends four years ago.
Rapkin, who works as an estate planning and probate lawyer, was found guilty of misdemeanor disorderly conduct in April 2023 after a videotape showed her spitting on Lucas. Court records show that it was less severe than the original hate crime enhancement she was charged with before the defense asked the judge to remove it.
She got 60 days in jail after turning down the judge’s first offer of probation for a year and 100 hours of community service as reported by Atlanta Black Star.
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“It’s not possible.” Rapkin told the judge in May 2023, “I’d rather go to jail right now and take care of it.”
The throwing match took place in Milwaukee’s Shorewood neighborhood on June 6, 2020. Lucas says Rapkin spat on him after blocking a march he and his friends were taking part in with her car. He also said that they were yelling, “I’m Black and I’m proud.”
As a cancer patient, Rapkin told the judge that she was afraid for her life because no one was wearing masks and Lucas was too close. It was her fault that someone touched and grabbed her, and she spat on the ground, not Lucas.
“There’s clear video of spit leaving your mouth and hitting the teenager,” a Sentinel reporter says to Rapkin during an interview with her at a Milwaukee courthouse.
“I’m innocent. I did not spit on a child. He’s not a child. I wish people would stop saying that,” Rapkin responded, saying Lucas had come after her. When the reporter reminds Rapkin that Lucas was, in fact, 17, she says he’s 21, to which the reporter cites the fact that he was 17 when the incident occurred.
“He was a teenager who’s 5-foot-8 and about 200 pounds. … How could I spit up? He’s as tall as you are. You can see how small I am. I couldn’t run. I had no place to go. They blocked me in at 65-years-old with cancer.”
It was also claimed that Rapkin kneed a police officer in the groin when they came to her house to arrest her the day after she spit on the teen. She was charged with felony battery for this. In November 2023, that charge was dropped.
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