Lawyers who torched NYPD police vehicle agree to new plea deal

June 2, 2022

Lawyers Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges after burning an NYPD van during a George Floyd protest.

The pair of radical lawyers who torched an empty NYPD vehicle amid protests in Brooklyn over the police killing of George Floyd pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy charges in a deal struck with federal prosecutors.

The firebug attorneys, Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman, each copped to counts of conspiracy to commit arson and to make and possess an unregistered destructive device for firebombing the police van in Brooklyn on May 30, 2020, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office said.

They had previously pleaded guilty to possessing a destructive device – but successfully fought prosecutors’ effort to give them a lengthy sentence under a “terrorism enhancement.”

Under the plea deal cemented Thursday, prosecutors will not seek the enhancement, and will request for a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

In a May court filing, prosecutors noted the federal probation department said the enhancement was too strong given their otherwise law-abiding lives.

“This increase appears to over-represent the maliciousness of the defendants’ intentions in committing the offense, while also negating the defendants’ otherwise law-abiding lives free of prior criminal convictions,” the federal probation department wrote.

The pair were arrested after Rahman tossed a Molotov cocktail at an empty NYPD van outside the 88th Precinct stationhouse in Fort Greene amid citywide uprisings in May 2020.

Mattis acted as the getaway driver in the caper, the feds charged. Mattis is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5; Rahman will be sentenced on Sept. 29.

Sauce: https://nypost.com/2022/06/02/lawyers-who-torched-nypd-van-agree-to-new-plea-deal/