2 lawyers charged in Molotov cocktail attack on cop car reach plea deal
New York lawyers Colinford Mattis (left) and Urooj Rahman in their May 2020 booking photos. Photos from the U.S. attorney’s office of the Eastern District of New York via the Associated Press.
Two lawyers have reached a plea deal to resolve allegations in connection with a Molotov cocktail attack that damaged an unoccupied New York City police car, one of their lawyers told Law.com.
Lawyers Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman will avoid a mandatory minimum sentence by pleading guilty to one count of possessing or making a destructive device, according to Rahman’s lawyer, Paul Shechtman. They face a maximum potential sentence of 10 years in prison.
Mattis, a 2016 graduate of the New York University School of Law, was suspended from his job as a Pryor Cashman associate pending the outcome of the case, according to Law.com.
Rahman, a graduate of the Fordham University School of Law, had lost her job before the incident, the superintendent of Rahman’s building told the New York Daily News in May 2020.
The two lawyers were accused of participating in the firebombing in May 2020 during racial justice demonstrations in New York City. They had faced seven federal charges, including five carrying mandatory minimums, according to Law.com.
If they were convicted on all counts, the lawyers could face life in prison, prosecutors said after the indictment. The mandatory minimum for conviction on all counts was 45 years in prison, according to a motion seeking dismissal of the counts carrying mandatory minimums.
A press release announcing the charges said a New York Police Department surveillance camera recorded Rahman tossing a Molotov cocktail at an unoccupied police car in Brooklyn, New York City, before fleeing in a tan minivan driven by Mattis.
Lawyers for Mattis and Rahman filed motions Friday seeking dismissal of the five counts carrying mandatory minimum sentences. The motions will be paused until guilty pleas are entered, Shechtman told Law.com.
