CNN reports
A second former New York lawyer has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison for participating in a Molotov cocktail attack during a New York City protest in 2020 following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Colinford Mattis, 35, pleaded guilty to carrying out the attack on an empty New York Police Department police patrol car in late May 2020. He will also have to pay over $30,000 of restitution to the police department for the destroyed van and serve one year of supervised release after his jail sentence, according to John Marzulli, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Mattis was indicted alongside another former New York lawyer, Urooj Rahman, in June 2020 over the incident. Last November, Rahman was sentenced to 15 months in prison for her role in the incident.
Both Mattis and Rahman were charged by federal prosecutors with causing damage by fire and explosives to the police vehicle.
They drove a tan minivan to the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. During the protest, Rahman approached an empty NYPD vehicle with an already broken window and tossed in a makeshift explosive device, according to court filings. She fled the scene in the van driven by Mattis, court records show. Police stopped the vehicle and found “precursor” items to build explosives, including a lighter, a Bud Light bottle filled with toilet paper and a gasoline tank.
The case of Mattis and Rahman has drawn attention not only because of the severity of the allegations, but also due to the characteristics of the defendants. Both attended top-tier schools – Mattis completed New York University Law School after graduating from Princeton University and Rahman is a graduate of Fordham Law School – and have backgrounds that indicate they are devoted members of their families and communities.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/27/us/george-floyd-protests-second-lawyer-prison/index.html
