Two New York City attorneys who threw a Molotov cocktail into a police car during the George Floyd protests appear in Brooklyn court to finalize a plea deal that could see them face a reduced sentence of less than TWO YEARS
- Colinford Mattis, 35, and Urooj Rahman, 33, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy charges carrying a maximum of five years in prison
- Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend 18 to 24 months in prison in exchange for today’s plea
- The couple were arrested on May 30, 2020 during clashes between protesters and police after they set fire to an NYPD van with a Molotov cocktail
Two New York City attorneys who set an NYPD van on fire with a Molotov cocktail during the 2020 George Floyd protests appeared in a Brooklyn court on Thursday to accept a plea deal that would drastically reduce their sentences could reduce.
Colinford Mattis, 35, and Urooj Rahman, 33, have withdrawn previous guilty pleas to unlawful possession of Molotov cocktails and have pleaded guilty to conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The couple initially faced life imprisonment in their first arrest in 2020, which was then reduced to 10 years in October 2021.
Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend 18 to 24 months in prison in exchange for today’s plea.
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Urooj Rahman, 33, (left) exits Brooklyn federal courthouse on Thursday after completing a plea bargain on the torching of an NYPD van during the 2020 George Floyd protests
Colinford Mattis, 35, (right) exits federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Thursday after completing a plea bargain in the 2020 NYPD van torching incident
Urooj Rahman was holding a Molotov cocktail made from a Bud Light bottle when she used a similar device to set fire to an NYPD van
The couple were arrested on May 30, 2020 during clashes between protesters and police during an outbreak of demonstrations following Floyd’s killing by Minnesota Police Officer Derek Chauvin.
Surveillance cameras caught Rahman, a human rights lawyer, hurling a Molotov cocktail bomb into a parked police vehicle, setting the interior on fire. No one was injured in the attack, but the vehicle was severely damaged.
Officers arrested the lawyers a short time later and said they found a lighter, a Bud Light beer bottle filled with toilet paper and a gas tank in the back of a minivan driven by Mattis, a corporate lawyer. Prosecutors accuse the attorneys of distributing and throwing Molotov cocktails at others.
An NYPD van set on fire during the George Floyd protests in Brooklyn in May 2020. It is not clear if this is the same vehicle that the lawyers hit with Molotovs
A burned-out NYPD van after the May 2020 protest. It is not clear if this is the same vehicle that the lawyers hit with molotovs
Urooj Rahman (left) and Colinford Mattis (right) after their 2020 arrest for arsoning an NYPD van during the George Floyd protests in New York City
NYPD union boss Patrick Lynch (center) has condemned Rahman and Mattis’ short sentences
Originally, Mattis and Rahman faced a mandatory minimum count of 40 years and life in prison when they were arrested in 2020.
The government’s prosecution plan was then scaled back to a 10-year sentence with augmentation based on an October 2021 hearing in a Brooklyn federal court in which Mattis and Rahman each pleaded guilty to one count of possession and manufacture of a destructive device terrorism switched.
The couple have spent most of the past two years in domestic confinement.
News of the attorneys’ reduced sentences was met with outrage by Patrick J. Lynch, president of the New York City Police Benevolent Association, who said the lenient sentences would encourage “anti-police radicals.”
“The judge must deny this request. There is absolutely no justification for lowering the sentence for an anti-police terrorist attack,” Lynch said on Fox News.
“It’s bad enough that these dangerous criminals have been allowed to sit at home for the last two years,” Lynch said.
“Giving them a penalty under guidelines would give the green light to other anti-police radicals trying to further their cause through violence. The judge must deny this request.”
US District Judge Brian Cogan said he is not bound by the sentencing recommendations under the new plea deal but will take it into account when sentencing the two attorneys this fall.
Urooj Rahman leaves federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday. She agreed to a plea deal where federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of 18 to 24 months
Colinford Mattis leaves federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday. He was driving the getaway car after he and Rahman threw a Molotov cocktail into an NYPD van