2 Non-White Attorneys Disbarred for Torching Empty NYPD Cruiser During Protest. Indian Atty Gets 1 Year in Prison, Black Atty Sentencing in Dec. [Contrast to the McCloskeys White Privilege Treatment]
/From [HERE] A former law firm associate at Pryor Cashman and a public-interest lawyer have been disbarred following their guilty pleas for conspiring to toss a Molotov cocktail at an empty police car during New York protests in 2020.
The Appellate Division’s First Judicial Department of the New York State Supreme Court disbarred Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman on Tuesday in opinions here and here.
Prosecutors had alleged that Rahman tossed the Molotov cocktail at the police car, and Mattis drove the getaway minivan.
Law360 and Reuters have coverage, while the Legal Profession Blog links to the opinions.
Rahman was sentenced to more than a year in prison Friday by a white liberal NYC judge.
Brooklyn federal court Judge Brian Cogan admonished Urooj Rahman before handing down the 15-month sentence, calling the firebombing an “attack on the rule of law” carried out by someone who took an oath to uphold the Constitution.
In the United States, Cogan told Rahman, you “go to the ballot box, not the bomb” if you’re driven to fight for social justice. He added she showed an “amazing level of arrogance” with the attack. [yeah. the ballot box is working so well to prevent cops from murdering NGHRS]
Mattis was formerly an associate at Pryor Cashman. He became a lawyer in 2018 after graduating from the New York University School of Law in 2016.
Rahman had worked at Bronx Legal Services. She became a lawyer in 2019 after graduating from the Fordham University School of Law.
The appeals court said Mattis and Rahman had pleaded guilty to a federal offense that was essentially similar to New York felonies requiring automatic disbarment. They had acknowledged that a likely consequence of their guilty pleas was disbarment.
The disbarments are effectively retroactive to June 2.
Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 18 for Rahman and for Dec. 16 for Mattis.