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Brooklyn attorneys weigh plea deal in NYPD firebombing case

April 1, 2021 Jim Mustian, Associated Press
This May 30, 2020 combination of booking photos provided by the United States Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of New York shows Colinford Mattis, left, and Urooj Rahman, both Brooklyn attorneys. Federal prosecutors told a judge Thursday, April 1, 2021. they have offered a plea deal to the two Brooklyn attorneys charged with firebombing an empty police vehicle last year amid the demonstrations that erupted in New York City following the death of George Floyd. U.S. Attorney's Office via AP, File
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Federal prosecutors told a judge Thursday they have offered a plea deal to two Brooklyn attorneys charged with firebombing an empty police vehicle last year amid demonstrations in New York City following the death of George Floyd.

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan set a 90-day deadline for lawyers for Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman to accept the government’s offer or proceed to trial on charges, including arson conspiracy, that could land them in prison for nearly 50 years.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn and defense attorneys for both lawyers declined to comment on the plea negotiations, which have been ongoing for several weeks.

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“This isn’t a case that developed over a period of years — it happened in one night,” Cogan said during a brief court hearing in Brooklyn federal court. “People ought to be able to work it out.”

The seven-count indictment has been criticized by several former prosecutors as disproportionate, in large part because no one was injured in the attack. The attorneys face at least 45 years in federal prison if convicted as charged.

Mattis, a corporate attorney, and Rahman, a human rights lawyer, are accused of torching a New York City Police Department vehicle in May after a police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck in Minnesota for several minutes even after he stopped moving. The officer, Derek Chauvin, is on trial in Floyd’s death.

Surveillance cameras recorded Rahman hurling what prosecutors described as a Molotov cocktail into the vehicle, setting fire to its console near an NYPD station house.

Officers later arrested the lawyers and said they found a lighter, a beer bottle filled with toilet paper, and a gasoline tank in the back of a minivan driven by Mattis.

Prosecutors allege the lawyers planned to distribute and throw other Molotov cocktails.

The attorneys are due back July 1 in Brooklyn federal court.


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2 Comments

  1. Moses Colin

    I am a retired lawyer and the standard of an attorney is very high. I believe any attorney who bombs a police car – even though empty – should NOT get a plea deal. Throw the key away – like any American charged with a crime against a Peace Officer and Officer of the Court – no special deals for paying for law school – only your actions. And this one is no different than those attorneys who planned the supposed “insurrection” on the capitol and prided themselves about it afterwards. Like the cop who killed George Floyd – without national protests Chauvin would have gone free with no questions asked.

    April 5, 2021 at 2:13 am
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    • Floyd Thursby

      They don’t need 45 years, but they need enough time to deter anyone from any such future act. The people who tore down the statues in San Francisco last May have still not been arrested, and should at least get a year. Police saw them do it. I believe 3 years is appropriate if they apologize for their actions and undergo anger management counseling, but 10 if they refuse to apologize and still argue that the only way to get attention is destroying property, as Urooj Rahman has argued. She should have to create a video saying that it is never OK to destroy property, loot or commit violence against another human being in protest. The goal is revolution and scientists, including an African American professor at Harvard, proved police don’t treat suspects any differently by race. White police and black police are equally likely to kill black or white suspects. The goal should be creating charter schools, refusing to take any influence or donations from the teacher’s union, getting underrepresented minorities free tutors and to study 15-20 hours a week from an early age as the average Asian or Nigerian American does, and thus getting them into the upper middle class so they aren’t being arrested for crimes they usually did commit. A certain percentage of arrests will go wrong if suspects don’t recognize the police right to arrest them and try to fight back. We need to teach all people to stop arguing with police and put your hands up and surrender and prove you’re not a threat, as many police are killed often, hundreds a year, which is also a tragedy. Rahman and the other one should get 3 years, but 10 if they don’t create a video apologizing and recognizing what they did was morally reprehensible and based on a statistical fallacy that police are actively racist.

      May 19, 2021 at 6:33 pm
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