HARTFORD, Conn. — Tensions were high inside and outside a superior court in Hartford after hate crime charges were dropped against a New Fairfield woman who spat on Black Lives Matter activists in Jan. 2021.
“She committed a hate crime in front of an officer on Capitol grounds on camera and her charges are wiped clean,” said Karen Prescott, who spent her 42nd birthday voicing a victim impact statement inside court during a hearing in which charges were dismissed against Yuliya Gilshteyen due to her acceptance and participation in an accelerated rehabilitation program. Gilshteyen was initially charged with a hate crime after spitting on Prescott during the pandemic on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prescott provided emotional testimony.
“I’m disgusted and I’m disappointed. I did everything the right way,” she said. “This program is probably one of the worst things that could happen to a victim of a hate crime.
“This AR is setting a precedent in the state that you can plan an attack against a black or brown body if you are white and all you have to do is come here, say I’m sorry and a judge is going to grant you some anger management classes, and you walk free.”
Court marshals escorted Gilshteyen outside of court where she was met with BLM protestors shouting “racist, racist.”
Prescott, who has multiple sclerosis and said she’s suffered emotional distress as a result, was awarded $300,000 by a judge in a civil suit, which Gilshteyen is appealing.
“She said that she feared for her life when she spit in my face even though she walked up to me, unprovoked,” Prescott said. "Do you know what happens to white women in Connecticut? Their charges get dismissed."
She added: "Over the last two years, the hope meter diminished."
BLM demonstrators and local activists stood with Prescott inside and outside the court.
Prescott and her attorney Ken Krayeske were denied justice by the accelerated rehabilitation program.
Attorney Ken Krayeske said, “There is a direct line between Yuliya Gilshteyen’s assault on Karen Prescott and the swastika that was drawn on the Black Lives Matter mural less than a quarter mile away from here. This is the atmosphere that the legal system is creating.”
Samaia Hernandez is a reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at shernandez@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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