Arkansas Online

Pair guilty in torching of NYC police car

— COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS

NEW YORK — A pair of activist lawyers pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges they torched an empty New York City police vehicle last year amid the unrest over the police killing of George Floyd.

Urooj Rahman, 32, and Colinford Mattis, 34, each face up to 10 years in prison at sentencing next year on a charge of possessing or making a destructive device. They had faced a mandatory-minimum sentence of 45 years in prison if convicted at trial on seven counts, including six that will be dropped as a result of the plea. Along with a prison term, both could be disbarred.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had accused Rahman of throwing a bottle containing gasoline into an empty police vehicle, trying to distribute Molotov cocktails to other people and then fleeing in a minivan driven by Mattis. Prosecutors said Rahman, while at protests in Brooklyn, sent text message updates to Mattis and others, saying “Throwing bottles and tear gas… lit some fires but were put out… fireworks goin and Molotovs rollin.”

The prosecution has drawn criticism from some members of the legal community who claimed the case was driven by the Trump Administration’s heavy-handed approach to protests over police killings of young Black men like Floyd.

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2021-10-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/281629603469720

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