Two attorneys arrested for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at NYPD vehicles during George Floyd protests in NYC in May 2020 are expected to enter guilty pleas, one of their attorneys said.
Colinford Mattis, a Princeton and NYU Law graduate who had worked at Pryor Cashman, and public interest attorney Urooj Rahman, who attended Fordham Law, will plead guilty tomorrow to one count of possessing a destructive device under a plea deal worked out with prosecutors, said defense attorney Paul Schectman.
The maximum potential prison sentence is ten years, but it is expected the two will receive far less time. The count does not carry any mandatory minimum sentence, unlike several of the other counts that will be dismissed under the plea deal.
The two are expected to enter their plea in Brooklyn Federal Court Thursday afternoon, according to Schectman, and may address the court at that time.
At a hearing earlier in the summer, prosecutors said the plea deal they put forward would expire in September.
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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. No one was injured in the attack.
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.
