Molotov Cocktail Lawyers Disbarred
“Although the court’s order was released Tuesday, it retroactively dated the start of their disbarment to June 2”
The two lawyers charged with throwing a Molotov Cocktail at a police car during the George Floyd riots in New York have now been disbarred.
Most people believed this is what should happen, but in our current environment, it seems somewhat surprising that it actually did happen.
Reuters reports:
N.Y. disbars lawyers who threw Molotov cocktail at police car during George Floyd protests
Attorney regulators in New York on Tuesday disbarred two lawyers who pleaded guilty to throwing a Molotov cocktail at an empty city police car during protests over George Floyd’s death.
New York’s Appellate Division, First Department said Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman qualified for automatic disbarment based on their guilty pleas in June.
Although the court’s order was released Tuesday, it retroactively dated the start of their disbarment to June 2, when Mattis and Rahman admitted in Brooklyn federal court to conspiracy to commit arson and possess an explosive device.
Mattis and Rahman told U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan at the time that they understood they would lose their law licenses as a result of their guilty pleas.
Rahman represented tenants in the Bronx as a public interest lawyer. Mattis worked as an associate at law firm Pryor Cashman, but was furloughed in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The firm suspended him after his arrest.
Mattis is set to be sentenced later this month, and Rahman in December. At one point, it looked as though they were going to get a light, two-year sentence, but who knows?
Another woman found guilty of a similar crime during the same riots just got six years.
New York Daily News reports:
Upstate New York woman gets 6 years for tossing Molotov cocktail at NYPD during George Floyd protest in Brooklyn
A woman who tossed a Molotov cocktail at an NYPD van with four cops inside in Brooklyn during the 2020 George Floyd protests was sentenced to six years behind bars Tuesday.
Samantha Shader, 29, pleaded guilty in April to a federal arson charge for turning a Bulleit bourbon bottle into a makeshift firebomb on May 29, 2020, that she hurled near Eastern Parkway and Washington Ave. in Crown Heights.
“Get out of my motherf—-g way,” the woman from upstate Saugerties yelled before the throw, which was caught on video.
The bottle broke the van’s window, but the fluid inside, which the feds describe as acetone or nail polish remover, didn’t ignite, and the four officers were spared a fiery fate.
When NYPD officers arrested her, she bit one of them in the leg.
I’m not a lawyer, but isn’t that a legal precedent?
Shouldn’t the Molotov lawyers get the same sentence?
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Dis-barrment?
Most people believe this type of attempted murder under the color of domestic terrorism should be punished by life in prison.
They should have been shot right after lighting their Molotov. As to their being disbarred, were either of them actually competent, or were like so many others, Affirmative incompetent?
There’s never a Democrat “hero” when you need one.
I agree. Lighting a Molotov is indicative of an intent to employ it. Even if directed against an inanimate object, because it can start a fire its use can turn deadly. In order to insure that the subsequent fire doesn’t become deadly, the thrower should be shot to prevent the device’s employment.
An actual [nationwide] insurrection with weapons and fire.
But it is a Leftist insurrection so it is sui generis commendable. Only when nasty, evil, conservatives try to use the Bill of Rights is insurrection criminal.
Actually, I am surprised that the two Leftist shysters may get two years of jail when those not so privileged get 6. Of course, we do not know if the shysters will get probation for the two years, which would not be unexpected.
Subotai Bahadur
This is probably the first time either of these two have had to suffer the consequences of their actions.
Hope they enjoy this new life lesson.
The federal sentencing guidelines apply. The woman from upstate Saugerties pled guilty to a federal crime of arson, and the two lawyers pled guilty to both arson and possession of an explosive device.
I personally believe that attorneys should be held to a higher standard because they have superior knowledge of the expectations of our society and should be models for the community. In my opinion, they were guilty of “criminal stupidity” and “letting the ends justify the unlawful means.” What were they thinking? What in their legal education caused them to be open to such faulty thinking? The people who attested to their character and fitness to be admitted to the bar should write letters of apology.
By the way, my views on this are apolitical. Any lawyers in the Jan. 6 mob should be held equally accountable.
No one involved in the Jan 6 incident had a molotov cocktail. You could maybe get the shaman dude for having a weaponized hat with those pointy horns.
No cocktail, no weapons, no riot until the rug was summarily pulled from underfoot.
Persecution of those people over January 6 should be met with 10 fold worse treatment of those associated with that persecution. There must be consequences’.
According to most recent credi8ble reports, those were pretty much all undercover FBI agents, and I agree: lock ’em up!
So even the leftist Bar Association has a limit. Good to know.
These two are prime candidates to join Media Matters or the DNC.
Pretty soon they will receive offers from CNN to be paid contributors.
Let me know when they are locked up for 2 years without any outside contact. Like the J6 people.
The moreso since it seems to me that attacking the police is, well, insurrection-y.
One difference is that one police car was empty, and the other police car had 4 officers inside.
“Buh-buh-but equity! Social justice!”
Bah. Maybe these brats have gotten accustomed to redefining words to benefit themselves. But there are still some corners of the world where that nonsense won’t fly.
In contrast to the defendant sentenced to 6 years — who tossed her Molotov cocktail into a police van occupied by 4 police officers — the 2 lawyers tossed their Molotov cocktail into an empty police car. I’m afraid that’s sufficient reason for the judge to give them a lighter sentence, so prepare your expectations accordingly.
(Of course, if I were the 2 lawyers’ sentencing judge, I’d tell them that the woman from Saugerties should have been sentenced to 20 years, sentence them to 10.)
I totally agree with your last sentence. Tossing a Molotov cocktail into an _occupied_ vehicle was attempted murder as well as arson, and 6 years was much too light a sentence. The two lawyers committed “only” arson, but 2 years (or 1.5 years, which is now the actual sentence for one of them) is also much too light. Both sentences indicate either judges that are much too soft on crime (and that’s not something I say very often) or judges that don’t take an attack on police as seriously as the same attack on a “civilian”.
They were disbarred. Unlike Barack and Michelle who voluntarily deactivated their home state law licenses to avoid those pesky fees.
Why do you even bring them up? Why wouldn’t they have done that? Who in their right mind would keep paying bar fees when they’re not practicing law?
https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/ad1/calendar/List_Word/2021/06_Jun/24/PDF/Matter%20of%20Giuliani%20(2021-00506)%20PC.pdf Compare the absence of any passing of judgment here as opposed to https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/ad1/calendar/List_Word/2021/06_Jun/24/PDF/Matter%20of%20Giuliani%20(2021-00506)%20PC.pdf
I would argue that Floyd suffered from terminal stupidity, he intentionally ingested a lethal dose of drugs. He was not murdered.
Shouldn’t the Molotov lawyers get the same sentence?
Their target was un-occupied. So likely not. Unfortunately.
Also, looks like someone is at least slightly concerned about the credibility of the profession.
I think that both of these miscreants had lawyers who negotiated down the original indictments but at least theywon’t claim to be using the legal profession as a shield for their clearly criminal actions
Great way of pissing away your education to act like toddlers, fruitnobs.
Were they actually educated? For some reason I doubt that they were,
But can they be licensed in another state or DC?
My thought? Highly unlikely. When you either apply for Pro Hac Vice or apply to the state bar itself, you have to file a lot of paperwork, depending on the state.
One thing they DO ask if you have been convicted of a crime, whether convicted or not. And if you fail to disclose that, you will not be considered. (e.g. Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XVII).
So, no, I don’t really think they’ll be able to practice law. They can become a paralegal, but that’s the closest I see. I’m sure a progressive firm would throw them a bone, provided of course they can weather the possible PR storm.
Federal agencies are always looking for young motivated talent. After a few years, this will be forgiven
Just like Clinesmith. Once the publicity fades their licenses will be re-instated.
At least she gets to keep that super badass “radical” t-shirt as a lovely parting gift.
. A woman in upstate NY attempted to murder 4 cops by throwing a makeshift firebomb at their vehicle and gets sentenced to six years for her trouble. They survived because the thing didn’t ignite as intended. It looks like she they only charged her with some of the lesser crimes of the incident. Six years seems incredibly light under the circumstances.
The former Lawyers threw theirs at an empty police car. No attempted murder here, just wanton destruction. I will be suprised if they get much more than time served, given the comparison.
Such an interesting, specious affiliation. “Woman from upstate New York?”
Whatever the guilt by association spin attempted, I decline to have people from upstate smeared with the brush of this “woman from upstate”‘s actions.
What were the issues being “protested?” What was her position on them? Her affiliates and associates? Why three of them charged around several attempts at arson, at once? Organzation or conspiracy there, or was it just arson season?
Why was burning up police on the job supposed to be justified? helpful?
As presented, the story is this woman from upstate hauled herself into NYC to throw a faulty firebomb … presumably because that’s what those violent red-politics insurrectionists do. More likely she’s Antifa, or affiliated? Black Block, or trained? BLM incited, reaching out to “direct action?”
BTW, where was she living at the time of the political violence?
Were these assaults affiliated with legislation, an election, a campaign? Or political actions going on at the same time and place, affiliated with legislation, an election, a campaign?
Seems pretty insurrection-y, given when and what was up at the time.
The PR is interesting.
Meanwhile, these miscreants, similar to various Weather Underground, or a teacher or two of President “Punch Back Twice As Hard”, are spared greater consequences by their own incompetence.
Having their law license removed and only two years in prison is very light. They will be out likely in a few months and have their licenses back in a couple of years after they get a Pardon from Biden.
It’s just as well, they didn’t look like lawyers anyway.
First of all, no, it’s not a precedent of any kind.
Second, the two cases are completely different because the car Shader threw her firebomb at was not empty; there were four cops inside. She claims that she thought it was empty; but 1) the prosecutors and judge didn’t believe her; and 2) even if she thought that, the fact is that they were there and had the thing gone off she might well have killed them. Had they died she’d be up on murder charges even if she didn’t know they were there. Whereas in this case the car these two firebombed was in fact empty. So the two cases are not alike.
My understanding is that they were passing out Molotovs to other people, even if they did not intend to do harm, they were intentionally creating conditions likely to cause maiming and death. They belong in jail.
I’m shocked they got any punishment at all.
“Shouldn’t the Molotov lawyers get the same sentence?”
No, they should get a much longer sentence. They were “officers of the court” and both should have known the seriousness of their act, AND should be held to a higher standard than a “normal” person.
Although the woman with the 6 year sentence should have gotten the same treatment as a dog who bit a person.
For the record, our sentencing speculations were off. Urooj Rahman, the female of the pair of disbarred lawyers, had her sentence handed down. It was not the two years reported yesterday. Nor, of course, a higher sentence as warranted.
She got, as the result of intervention by the Biden “Department of Justice”, 15 months. I suspect that in the end, it will be probation and/or work release of some kind so that the agent of the Left does not have to face what a mere citizen does.
https://freebeacon.com/courts/left-wing-lawyer-who-firebombed-police-car-sentenced-to-fifteen-months-in-prison/
Subotai Bahadur