By Natasha Velez , Reuven Fenton and Elizabeth Hagen
The New York Post
BROOKLYN — A boozy Brooklyn lawyer tried to skip out on a $6 taxi fare — then was busted after stripping off her panties and tossing them at cops while screaming profanities, police said.
Cops they found a very drunk Stephanie Hendricks, 39 — who has clerked for an Oregon Supreme Court justice and served as a Blackmun Fellow — in front of a Williamsburg deli after she bolted from a yellow cab at around 2:30 a.m. Saturday.
The bawdy barrister, who lives with her churchgoing mom in Flatlands, pulled off her panties, showed cops her lady parts, then lunged at them and yelled, “Suck my p---y,’' and, “Eat my ass, you f--king pigs!” police said.
“Normally we don’t see people cursing a police officer,” deli owner Mohammad Rahman, 54, told The Post. “But then she opened her clothes in front of the police officer, in front of us. She looked crazy,”
“She . . . showed everything to the cop . . . She had no panties.
“The cops were saying, ‘Calm down, lady. Calm down. Be cool,’ ” Rahman said.
The incident was captured on the deli’s surveillance video, which shows Hendricks charging out of the shop, her butt exposed, and lunging at officers.
The lawyer, who runs a small private practice in Downtown Brooklyn, was slapped with a slew of charges, including theft of services, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and exposure.
“My boyfriend broke up with me,” an embarrassed Hendricks explained yesterday to The Post. “I went out. I got drunk. I had a bad night.
“It was obviously an altercation, but I have no recollection from a certain point in the evening.
“Everyone was in a festive mood,” she said. “Things were flowing. Then things got out of control. I was wasted - all caps bold. You couldn’t get bigger, all caps bold, wasted.”
She said she regrets her behavior and tried to apologize to police yesterday.
She worries that her sloppy antics will sink her career.
“I’m a sole practitioner,” Hendricks said, sobbing. “I solicit business from the public.”
Two of her clients were befuddled by the wacky incident.
“Wow, that’s an absolutely bizarre story to hear,” one said, while another added, “I’m completely shocked and appalled to hear this because that doesn’t sound like her in the least.”
The client described Hendricks as a hardworking professional whom she has recommended to many business colleagues.
According to Hendricks’ Web site, she has given legal talks at several New York State Bar Association conferences and served on their committees.
“Everybody has something like this happened to them,” the lawyer reasoned, “Life will go on. I will survive.”
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