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 Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman to accept the government’s offer or proceed to trial on charges including arson conspiracy.
The attorneys face at least 45 years in federal prison if convicted as charged.
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.
The seven-count indictment has been criticized by several former prosecutors as disproportionate, in large part because no one was injured in the attack.
Mattis, a corporate attorney, and Rahman, a human rights lawyer, are accused of torching an empty New York City Police Department vehicle on May 29 of last year.
The alleged event occurred during a Black Lives Matter protest four days after the death of George Floyd.
Mattis and Rahman are due back in court on July 1.
Two Brooklyn lawyers, Urooj Rahman, 31, left and Colinford Mattis, 32, have been given 90 days o accept a plea deal or proceed to trial after being charged with throwing a Molotov cocktail at an NYPD vehicle last May
On May 29, Urooj Rahman and Colinford Mattis were pictured at a protest in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. She threw a Molotov cocktail at an empty NYPD van and the pair were later charged with seven counts, including felonies
Mattis and Rahman have both pleaded not guilty, because they don’t believe the charges against them are called for.
They pair say all they did was destroy property and that they are being made an example of by the very police they were protesting against.
In a media interview last year, Rahma declared: ‘What I saw was targeting a property. No property is above a human life. Destruction of property is nothing compared to the murder of a human life.
‘This is the way people show their anger and frustration. Nothing else works,’ she added.
On May 29, 2020, surveillance cameras purportedly recorded Rahman hurling what prosecutors described as a Molotov cocktail while she was sitting in the passenger seat of a minivan.
The Molotov cocktail hit an NYPD cruiser, parked near the 99th Precinct in Fort Greene. The pair quickly tried to escape the scene in the minivan – driven by Mattis.
Officers subsequently gave chase and arrested the lawyers.
The cops claimed they found a lighter, a beer bottle filled with toilet paper, and a gasoline tank in the back of the vehicle.
Rahman is a graduate of Fordham Law School. Mattis, meanwhile, graduated from from Princeton before studying at New York University Law School
Rahman and Mattis were held in the Metropolitan Detention Center for almost a month before they were released to home confinement.
At the time of the alleged acts NYPD Commissioner Dermot F. Shea spoke out about the accusations made against the pair.
‘Violence, like that alleged here, not only endangers our NYPD officers but threatens the constitutional right of people to peacefully protest.
‘These indictments by our federal partners reflect our joint condemnation of the kind of isolated acts a just society can never tolerate,’ stated Shea.
The remains of a scorched police vehicle lie vandalized during riots in the Fort Greene neighborhood in the Brooklyn on May 29. This is a separate vehicle to the one allegedly targeted by Rahman and Mattis
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said the defendants allegedly threw the homemade explosives at NYPD vehicles ‘without regard for the potentially deadly consequences.’
‘Such criminal acts should never be confused with legitimate protest.
‘Those who carry out attacks on NYPD Officers or vehicles are not protesters, they are criminals, and they will be treated as such.’
Rahman is a graduate of Fordham Lae School.
Mattis, meanwhile, graduated from from Princeton before studying at New York University Law School.
A police officer watches a crowd as a police vehicle burns near Fort Greene on May 29
