Biglaw

Suspended Biglaw Associate Sentenced To Jail Time After Molotov Cocktail Attack

It's taken more than two years for this to happen. How much time will he serve?

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molotov cocktailWhen we last checked in on suspended Pryor Cashman associate Colinford Mattis and housing attorney Urooj Rahman, both charged in May 2020 for their involvement with a Molotov cocktail attack on a police vehicle in Brooklyn, New York, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, they’d been disbarred after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit arson and possess an explosive device — charges which carried with them sentences of 18 to 24 months.

Now, more than two years after the fact, both attorneys have finally been sentenced for their crimes. The New York Law Journal has the details:

Mattis was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison Thursday, two and a half years after he was arrested and charged with firebombing an unoccupied New York City Police Department vehicle during protests for racial justice in Brooklyn.

Mattis and his co-defendant, former tenants’ attorney Urooj Rahman, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit arson and to make and possess an unregistered destructive device. Rahman was sentenced to 15 months in prison in November.

Judge Brian Cogan of the Eastern District of New York said that although Mattis was a “good guy” who made a bad decision, he was unable to “get past the seriousness of these crimes.” Here’s more on that, from the NYLJ:

When protests were taking place across the city and country following the police killing of George Floyd, Cogan said Mattis could have set an example but did not.

“On that horrible night all over the country, we really needed you,” Cogan said. “We really needed the lawyers to step up and say ‘Did you see that tape of what that police officer did to him? There’s going to be punishment for that’…we needed you to do that. We needed all lawyers to do that, and instead you went the opposite direction.”

In her sentencing memo, Mattis’s lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, asked that her client be sentenced to time served, as he is the foster parent of his late mother’s three foster children, and has been attempting to adopt them. It’s incredibly sad, but that request seems to have fallen upon deaf ears.

To our knowledge, Pryor Cashman has yet to officially fire Mattis, but now that he’s been sentenced, we expect that shoe to soon drop. When that happens, the soon-to-be-former Biglaw associate’s case will finally come to a close.

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‘We Really Needed You’: Ex-Pryor Cashman Associate Sentenced to 1 Year in Molotov Cocktail Case [New York Law Journal]

Earlier: Suspended Biglaw Associate Disbarred After Guilty Plea In Molotov Cocktail Attack
Suspended Biglaw Associate Pleads Guilty To New Charges In Molotov Cocktail Attack
Suspended Biglaw Associate Likely To Get Reduced Sentence In Molotov Cocktail Attack
Suspended Biglaw Associate Accused In Molotov Cocktail Attack Pleads Guilty
Suspended Biglaw Associate Accused In Molotov Cocktail Attack Released To Home Confinement
Lawyer Charged In Alleged Molotov Cocktail Firebombing Caught On Camera In Controversial Interview
Suspended Biglaw Associate Accused In Molotov Cocktail Attack Sent Back To Jail
Furloughed Biglaw Associate Charged In Molotov Cocktail Attack Released On $250K Bond
Furloughed Biglaw Associate Charged In New York Molotov Cocktail Attack

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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