Despite a pending appeal, Keren Prescott and her attorney count the recent civil ruling in her favor in a 2021 spitting incident as a victory, especially for people of color and others who are historically marginalized.

Prescott, a community leader and activist, who was spat on by a woman at a rally at the state Capitol in January 2021, had a Connecticut judge recently award her a prejudgment remedy of more than $295,000 in a civil case, according to court documents and the CT News Junkie website.

The Courant previously reported that Yuliya Gilshteyn was captured on video shouting “all lives matter” and spitting on Power Up Manchester founder Prescott during competing demonstrations on the Capitol grounds while state lawmakers were sworn in on Jan. 6, 2021.

Judge Matthew Budzik wrote in his decision in the civil case that “the court finds that there is probable cause to conclude, based on the facts found by the court as set forth above, that Ms. Gilshteyn maliciously and intentionally harassed and intimidated Ms. Prescott by intentionally spitting in Ms. Prescott’s face and that Ms. Gilshteyn’s actions in so doing were motivated, in whole or in substantial part, by Ms. Prescott’s race.”

The judge, in his ruling, disputed claims Gilshteyn made about the incident.

Prescott’s attorney, Kenneth J. Krayeske, said Gilshteyn appealed the prejudgment remedy attachment award of $295,000. He said they do not yet know the grounds for her appeal. “She has 10 days from the date she filed the appeal to announce the grounds for her appeal,” he said.

Budzik explained in his ruling that a “prejudgment remedy means any remedy or combination of remedies that enables a person by way of attachment, foreign attachment, garnishment or replevin to deprive the defendant in a civil action of, or affect the use, possession or enjoyment by such defendant of, his property prior to final judgement.”

Capitol police arrested Gilshteyn and initially charged her with breach of peace, but Hartford State’s Attorney Sharmese Walcott reviewed the case and upgraded the charges to include a hate crime and additional offenses, including third-degree attempt to commit assault, first-degree reckless endangerment and risk of injury to a child, court records show.

The case again Gilshteyn is sealed on the state judicial website.

Gilshteyn, 45, was granted accelerated rehabilitation in July 2021, a special probation program for first-time offenders, and ordered then to complete 100 hours of anti-hate curriculum over the next two years. Under accelerated rehabilitation, if she were to successfully complete the program, her charges, including a felony hate crime of intimidation due to bias, would be dismissed. Pending AR cases are sealed on on the state judicial website.

Gilshteyn’s legal team declined to comment on the judge’s ruling or their recent appeal.

In response to the appeal, Krayeske said that “the defendant [Gilshteyn] would rather pay her white attorneys to delay the final reckoning in this case, rather than paying the Black plaintiff [Prescott] for the damages the defendant caused.”

Despite the appeal, Prescott remains steadfast in her hope that her case will help others who face similar situations as they fight for justice, as she has.

“I am still hopeful that the Appellate Court will recognize this is a tactic they are using to avoid the inevitable, which is [that Gilshteyn] needs to be held accountable for attacking me,” she said.

What makes her ruling even more of a rarity, she said, is that the system as a whole does not traditionally work in her favor, as a Black woman.

Prescott said that she is grateful to Krayeske for pushing her in ways that she did not want to be pushed as they worked toward this outcome. Prescott said she will work harder to combat hatred.

Doing her part to make sure that similar incidents don’t happen to others helps fuel Prescott to continue to work through her grassroots organization, Power Up CT, she said. The organization works “to address continued oppression and injustice”, while working “towards liberating those who are oppressed at every possible level, and amplifying their voices.”

“It’s important to point out racism is expensive. It is expensive. Racism is expensive. Not just monetarily, but physically, emotionally. The cost to be racist costs everyone, it costs racists and…Black folk, brown folk, and the marginalized as well…racism is what gave America the wealth that it has. And so having been able to use a system that was designed for her to rule in my favor is everything, that’s priceless,” she said.

Krayeske said that when he saw the verdict on the judicial website, he was thrilled as he knows how much Prescott has endured during this process.

“I’m so happy that the Court recognized that there is a high probability that we will be able to prove at trial that this was done with racist intent. We now have a ruling in the state of Connecticut that says, using the terms “all lives matter” and “Black on Black crime” are indicia of racism,” he said.

“And so for Keren, for every Black Lives Matter activist and protester who has put their bodies and their lives on the line to help stop the racist capitalism which grinds us all into a bloody pulp,” he said. “For Bishop John Selders [who introduced him to Prescott], for our children, for everyone, I’m so overjoyed that we got to the court to recognize a hate crime and to put a value on it.”

He also said that he hopes that the verdict will show “people that you can win … with the law non-violently, peacefully, and with dignity.”

Prescott said while she was surprised the ruling was in her favor, “it feels good to know that this judge saw my pain. He heard my cry. He believed me. It feels good to be vindicated, to be validated. It feels good to know somebody sees me hurting and they’re wanting to do something to try to repair the damage that’s done.”