Colinford Mattis & Urooj Rahman: Brooklyn Molotov cocktail throwing lawyers had also tried to pass out firebombs to protesters prosecutors say during arraignment as the two attorneys make bail and released Monday after posting $250K.
The two attorneys arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail through a police car window during protests in Brooklyn early Saturday were trying to pass out the incendiary devices to demonstrators in the crowd, federal authorities revealed Monday.
Brooklyn community board member Colinford Mattis, 32, and his alleged accomplice, Urooj Rahman, 31, were driving around in a tan minivan near a clash between police and demonstrators at the 88th Precinct station-house in Fort Greene, federal prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York said in a detention memo Monday.
A bystander took a photo of the pair in the car while they were allegedly trying to pass out the homemade explosive devices, according to the memo.
‘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 witness later told authorities.
The two were busted by cops after Mattis, who was in the driver’s seat, pulled the van over near the precinct, and Rahman allegedly got out and tossed a lit Molotov cocktail into a cop car.
Pictured, Brooklyn attorney, Urooj Rahman.
Observed with a Coors Bud Light Molotov Cocktail
Images from the detention memo purport to show a masked Rahman clutching a Molotov cocktail made from a Bud Light bottle.
The pair were arrested after cops observed the pair and gave chase.
‘During the arrest, officers observed in plain view several precursor items used to build a Molotov cocktail, including a lighter, a Bud Light beer 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,’ prosecutors said according to a report via the nypost.
During their Monday arrangement, Mattis & Rahman each faced charges of causing damage by fire and explosives to a police vehicle. They face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 20 years in jail if convicted.
Terrorist lawyers make bail despite fierce federal prosecutor objections
Come Monday night, Judge Steven Gold approved $250,000 bond for both Brooklyn community board member Colinford Mattis, 32, and his alleged accomplice, 31-year-old Urooj Rahman — despite strenuous objections from federal prosecutors the nypost reported.
Both Mattis and Rahman will be subject to home confinement and their family and friends who have offered to post the bond will be held responsible for paying if the lawyers jump bail, Gold said at the hearings.
Mattis, a graduate of Princeton University and the New York University School of Law, is an associate at corporate Manhattan firm, Pryor Cashman. Brooklyn Community Board 5 in East New York lists Mattis as one of its members.
Rahman is also registered as an attorney in New York state, who was admitted to the bar in June 2019 after graduating from Fordham University School of Law.
Their prestigious backgrounds were mentioned by prosecutors in the detention memo as evidence they knew exactly what they were doing when allegedly carrying out the vandalism.
“They knew their acts endangered the NYPD officers and protesters on the street, as well as their own futures, and the defendants were undeterred,” they wrote.
It remains unclear if the two ivy league lawyers will ever be allowed to practice law again.
