Two attorneys arrested for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at NYPD vehicles during George Floyd protests in New York City in May 2020 were expected to enter guilty pleas in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, one of their attorneys said, but the court hearing date was abruptly pushed back nearly two weeks.
It wasn't immediately clear why. The hearing has been rescheduled for Oct. 20.
Colinford Mattis, a Princeton and NYU Law graduate who had worked at Pryor Cashman, and public interest attorney Urooj Rahman, who attended Fordham Law, were expected to each cop to one count of possessing a destructive device under a plea deal worked out with prosecutors, defense attorney Paul Schectman told News 4 Wednesday.
The maximum potential prison sentence is 10 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.
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At a hearing earlier in the summer, prosecutors said the plea deal they put forward would expire in September.
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.
