Criminal law, Lawyering

Two New York Attorneys Arrested For Throwing Molotov Cocktail At Police [Updated]

downloadYesterday we discussed the four arrests associated with two attacks on New York police officers using Molotov cocktails.  It is now being reported that one of the defendants arrested, Colinford Mattis, 32, is a furloughed Pryor Cashman associate.  Mattis is a graduate of New York University and Princeton University. He was reportedly arrested with a second attorney in the attack.  Mattis is accused of driving a van and passenger Urooj Rahman, 31, threw a Molotov cocktail. Rahman is reportedly a human rights lawyer but also recently lost her job. Update: The FBI now says that the two defendants sought to pass out Molotov cocktails.

An NYPD surveillance camera reportedly recorded Rahman throwing the device toward a NYPD vehicle in Fort Greene.  A video showed her getting out of a tan 2015 Chrysler Town and Country minivan driven by Mattis and moving toward the patrol car. She was observed lighting a fuse on a Bud Light beer bottle and throwing it through a broken window.  It exploded inside of the vehicle and the two fled.

The police also have a picture of Rahman with the explosive:

download-1

The FBI statement included the following description:

“Officers pursued the minivan and arrested Rahman and Mattis, who was the vehicle’s driver.  The NYPD recovered several precursor items used to build Molotov Cocktails, including a lighter, a bottle filled with toilet paper and a liquid suspected to be gasoline in the vicinity of the passenger seat and a gasoline tank in the rear of the vehicle.”

They are now charged with causing damage by fire and explosives to a police vehicle. If convicted, each of them faces up to 20 years behind bars. There is a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years.

The specific provision charged appears to be 18 U.S.C. 844 (i):

“Whoever maliciously damages or destroys, or attempts to damage or destroy, by means of fire or an explosive, any building, vehicle, or other real or personal property used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce shall be imprisoned for not less than 5 years and not more than 20 years, fined under this title, or both;  and if personal injury results to any person, including any public safety officer performing duties as a direct or proximate result of conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be imprisoned for not less than 7 years and not more than 40 years, fined under this title, or both;  and if death results to any person, including any public safety officer performing duties as a direct or proximate result of conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall also be subject to imprisonment for any term of years, or to the death penalty or to life imprisonment.”

Unlike Samantha Shader’s case discussed yesterday, the vehicle was unoccupied.  However, the device did explode (unlike Shader’s Molotov cocktail). Still, Shader is looking at more serious charges of attempted murder. I would expect that additional charges might be sought now that authorities are saying that they were trying to distribute the Molotov cocktails.   The criminal complaint now includes the allegations that “Rahman attempted to distribute Molotov cocktails to the witness and others so that those individuals could likewise use the incendiary devices in furtherance of more destruction and violence.”  The use of the federal system is also likely to produce a longer sentence in a case of this kind, particularly if they can show a broader conspiracy or interstate movements or communications.

The new allegation reflects premeditation and planning to unleash multiple fire bombings. The FBI is likely looking at the ownership of the van and anyone who may have rendered material support.  The case is framed perfectly as a test case of the Administration treating defendants as domestic terrorists under the definition in subsection 5 of 18 U.S.C. 2331:

The term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—

(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;

(B) appear to be intended—(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and

(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

If the Justice Department is looking for a way to reframe cases as domestic terrorism without dealing with the dubious effort to define Antifa as a “foreign terrorist organization” under the State Department regulations, this may be the right case at the right time from their perspective.  For Mattis and Rahman, the consequences of such a reframing would obviously magnify the already serious allegations that they are facing.

Pryor Cashman’s website described Colinford Mattis, 32, as a member of the firm’s Corporate Group. That reported entry was deleted after the media learned of the connection.

However, two references remain on site.  One describes the corporate team that worked on a deal to sell a $319 million stake in AccorHotels. Another entry refers to Mattis as being on the team that launched brand management platform WHP Global on the acquisition of legacy women’s fashion brand Anne Klein.

According to Pryor Cashman managing partner Ronald Shechtman, Mattis has been on furlough since April due to the pandemic.  He said that Mattis’ employment status will be reviewed.  Given the serious federal criminal charges, a review may be in order.

Mattis graduated from New York University School of Law in 2016 and received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. He was also previously employed as an associate at Holland & Knight.  Rahman was just admitted to the New York bar in June 2019 after graduating from Fordham University School of Law.

Here is the DOJ filing: Criminal Complaint

309 thoughts on “Two New York Attorneys Arrested For Throwing Molotov Cocktail At Police [Updated]”

  1. Pingback: Democrats to blame for rioting and looting | Founders Broadsheet

  2. NYC and ACLU members? not much chance of being disbarred. But they could move to Chicago like the two weathermen terrorists who are now professors. and got away with their crimes.

    1. They will probably end up taking a plea deal. But if they plead guilty to any felony, even the least serious level (in my home state, that would be a 5th Degree Felony; I don’t know the comparable designation in New York) they would be subject to automatic, mandatory disbarment. They were foolish.

  3. In addition to being charged with attempted arson and inciting riots, will those two twisted young lawyers be disbarred at least?

  4. Floyd: fentanyl, methamphetamine, hypertension, severe multifocal arteriosclerosis, and now COVID-19.

    One foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. More than one reason for him to be dead.

  5. Pingback: Two more NYC Molotov throwers (both attorneys!) identified - Red Pie Daily

  6. JUSTICE FOR PHILIP BRAILSFORD

    I want to share for you guys a video of cops assassinating a white man who was fully complying with police orders, crying, kneeling before cops, and posed no danger to them at all? and got shot like a dog in the street. did anybody ever here of this?

    it’s an old one. but there’s more out there. its been done, it happens, it will happen again.
    will white people riot? maybe we should

    I may just start posting them for you apologizes for all these rioters, claiming it’s all about racism. get an eyefull of a white cop killing a white civilian in cold blood. but let’s see how unarmed and fully compliant Philp Brailsford’s life was ended by an angry cop’s rifle at point blank range

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYRRSdjdcbo

    He had a name. His name was Philip Brailsford. He was shot in cold blood on camera. Watch this and you will watch a murder.

  7. I want to share for you guys a video of cops assassinating a white man who was fully complying with police orders and posed no danger to them at all?

    did anybody ever here of this?

    it’s an old one. but there’s more out there. its been done, it happens, it will happen again.
    will white people riot? maybe we should

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYRRSdjdcbo

    He had a name. His name was Philip Brailsford. He was shot in cold blood on camera. Watch this and you will watch a murder.

  8. Attorney General Ellison has elected to charge the remaining officers in the Floyd case.

    He is reaching too far on a case that already has many holes.

    This is a political decision, most likely, and he has now heavily invested his reputation in the outcome. I would not be surprised if rules are bent.

    Meanwhile a public ready to sacrifice one officer may draw back at the thought of dragging the others to the top of the sacrificial tower.

    1. Well, the protesters and looters and rioters just got a victory that tells them they done good. I see 6 hours ago news is reporting it.
      What this means is it will happen again. With as much and more fervor.
      We await the next video murder that meets the criteria, and none that doesn’t.

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  11. Allan– Excellent information. Thank you. It does not fit the narrative and so it will never see the light of day except on a blog like this but at least it helps those of us who try to be rational to grasp the reality of what is going on. Among the more sickening displays I have seen are the white “liberals” (they’ve ruined a perfectly good and honorable word) pandering to black people, crying crocodile tears over George Floyd. Where are the tears for those blacks who have been killed by the rioters and looters or whose livelihoods have been destroyed? Where are the tears for those Chicago blacks murdered at an astonishing rate? They don’t have the moral courage to praise the real protesters and damn the criminals because, God forbid, someone on MSNBC or CNN will call them racists for criticizing a “person of color.” It is sickening.

    1. I saw that bunch of white weenies begging for forgiveness. As the self-appointed spokesperson for the Whole White Race, I hereby revoke their membership. They ain’t white!

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

      1. Squeeky– In the 1880s in a town not too far from here (2 hours by horseback) the good townspeople were fed up with lawlessness and so they, like many other Texas towns, formed a “Citizens Committee” to deal with the situation. When a crime occurred, it took two hours to ride to the county seat and get the Sheriff and another two to ride back to the scene of the crime. By then, the outlaw was long gone. The Citizens Committee filled the gap only its justice was summary and usually carried out by masked men. In this particular town, three outlaws were taken from a saloon and lynched on Christmas Eve. No one in the saloon had any idea what happened. They just didn’t see anything. We all should keep this in mind as these politicians stumble around with no clue what to do. If law breaks down, and the government does not respond, the citizens will and it will not be pretty.

        1. You are exactly right! My AK47 is locked and loaded. But where I live it will probably never be needed because people down here know we are all strapped and won’t put up with no crap. So stuff just doesn’t start in our neighborhoods. Now if they want to torch their own neighborhoods. . .

          Squeeky Fromm
          Girl Reporter

    3. Thanks. White guilt and rich blacks that promote these actions have one big thing in common. Neither of them have to live with the destruction that follows. None of them see the deaths in the inner cities daily. Few of them deal with ~70,000 who die of drug overdoses. No one considers the 87(?) policemen who have died serving their people.

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