According to new court documents, both lawyers were presented with a plea by federal prosecutors earlier this month on charges of setting fire to an empty NYPD van during a Black Lives Matter protest in Brooklyn early last month.
The suspects, Uros Rahman and Colinford Mattis, were offered an unspecified deal on February 11, according to a court papers filed Saturday by Brooklyn federal prosecutors.
The specifics about the proposed deal were not clear – nor were they accepted.
Prosecutors asked for “more time before the next status hearing in the case to enable defense counsel to review the parties to engage in further argument negotiations with defense lawyers and parties.”
The pair faced life behind bars when they were charged last summer on charges including arson, conspiracy and the use of explosives.
As anti-police protesters confronted police outside the 88 preschool stationhouse on May 29, Rahman allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail into an empty NYPD van nearby.
Mattis acted as a wheelman during firebombing and was ejected after igniting the van, but both were arrested a short time later, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors said in a picket memo at the time that they were trying to get protesters out of the Molotov cocktail at the demonstration.
Mattis, a graduate of Princeton University and New York University School of Law, was an associate at corporate Manhattan firm Prior Cashman, but according to the firm, bid farewell last spring.
Rahman was also a registered lawyer in New York State, who was admitted to the bar in June 2019 after graduating from Fordham University School of Law.
Lawyers for both Rahman and Mattis declined to comment.
Leave a Reply