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The New York lawyers accused of torching a police van with a Molotov cocktail last year during George Floyd protests in Brooklyn pleaded guilty to one count Wednesday — as prosecutors revealed they may have been plotting to burn down One Police Plaza that night.
“Go burn down 1PP,” Colinford Mattis wrote to his accomplice, Urooj Rahman, before their arrest on May 30, 2020, prosecutor Ian Richardson said at the plea hearing Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court.
“Bring it to their neck,” Mattis added in the text message and shared a Google Maps location of One Police Plaza with Rahman, Richardson said.
In a series of other messages, Rahman allegedly boasted to Mattis about the destruction she was causing that night as protests raged in Brooklyn and across the city.
“Set a police car on fire,” she said in one.
“My rock hit someone. A cop of course,” she added in another and included a smiley face emoji, Richardson said.
“Molotovs rollin’,” she added in another. “I hope they burn everything down. Need to burn all police stations down and probably the courts too.”
Both Mattis and Rahman copped to one count of possessing and making a destructive device at the hearing in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday.
They face a maximum of 10 years in prison as part of their plea deal, and prosecutors are seeking a “terrorism enhancement” at their sentencing in an effort to put them behind bars for a decade.
Both Rahman and Mattis said they “deeply regret” their actions that night after they entered their guilty pleas.
They also revealed to Judge Brian Cogan that both of them have been treated for psychological issues in the past year.
Mattis, a former lawyer for Manhattan firm Pryor Cashman, had been hospitalized for alcohol abuse and treated for ADHD and depression, he said at the hearing.
Rahman, meanwhile, has been treated for depression, anxiety and mood affectation, she said. Her lawyer, Paul Shechtman, added that she’s struggled with those ailments throughout her years in college and law school.
The pair were arrested on May 30 after Rahman allegedly tossed a Molotov cocktail made out of a beer bottle at an empty NYPD van outside the 88th Precinct stationhouse in Fort Greene.
Mattis acted as the wheelman during the caper, prosecutors alleged. They had both pleaded not guilty to the charges up until Wednesday’s hearing.
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