The white woman who was charged with a hate crime after being caught on video spitting on a Black woman Jan. 6, 2021 at the state Capitol was allowed to enter a special probation program last summer, but the story doesn’t end there.
Keren Prescott, the black woman who was spit upon, filed a civil lawsuit against Yuliya Gilshteyn in Hartford Superior Court last year.
Prescott said she and a friend were shouting “Black Lives Matter” and other slogans at the protests when Gilshteyn told her “all lives matter” and an argument ensued. Prescott said she also told Gilshteyn to back up because she wasn’t wearing a mask amid the coronavirus pandemic. Gilshteyn, who had an infant strapped to her chest, then spat at her Prescott’s glasses and mask.
This week, Gilshteyn fired her attorney, Lisa Vincent, and hired Norm Pattis.
Pattis was recently captured on video using the “N” word during a standup comedy routine and also represents conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the InfoWars host, who alleged the Sandy Hook School shooting was a hoax.
The naming of a new attorney in the case has retraumatized Prescott.
“I have to be completely honest, it’s a trigger,” Prescott said Tuesday in a phone interview. “A white man who publicly used the ‘N’ word.”
Pattis was caught on camera insulting Black Lives Matter activists, interracial couples, gay people and transgender individuals at a talent show held at Tolli’s Apizza on March 21.
She said it’s perpetuating the “culture of white supremacy.”
She said she was minding her own business and got spit on by a white woman who then was allowed accelerated rehabilitation.
“I’m disgusted. I’m furious,” Prescott said. “Why am I still having to deal with this injustice?”
“Hiring Norm is another attack,” Prescott said.
She said it’s causing her trauma and stress.
“How can he still be a lawyer?” Prescott said.
In a blog post, Pattis justified his stand-up comedy routine as an homage to comedian George Carlin. He wrote that the comments were directed at the “new high priests and priestesses of identity politics,” whom he called a social cancer on the body politic.
“The woke elite are much in need of ridicule and comedic takedown; so are the semi-literate half-wits who rally around them,” Pattis wrote in the 847-word post. “So if you are offended by use of the “N” word in that comedic skit consider the possibility that the joke is at your expense.”
Ken Krayeske, the attorney who represents Prescott, said a civil hate crime conviction could lead to triple damages.
In a strange twist, in 2009, Krayeske hired Pattis to represent him on a breach of peace charge.
“I fired Norm and Kevin Smith in 2009 as my counsel because they didn’t do the job I needed them to do,” he said.
The civil suit was scheduled for a hearing this Thursday, but Pattis has asked for a continuance. Emails to his press contact went unanswered.
