Molotov cocktail-tossing lawyer who torched NYPD van blames booze

A New York lawyer who torched an NYPD van with a Molotov cocktail during the George Floyd protests in 2020 begged for sympathy and a lenient sentence by blaming her vandalism on 'unprocessed trauma' and alcohol.

Urooj Rahman, 33, a human rights attorney, along with Colinford Mattis, 35, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges punishable by no more than five years imprisonment in June over the destruction.

Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a prison sentence of 18 to 24 months in return for the plea.

Rahman is now pushing to have that sentence converted into time served after spending 28 days in a federal jail in Brooklyn before posting $250,000 in bail.

According to court documents, Rahman's lawyers said on September 9 that Rahman was drinking vodka 'on an empty stomach' and her condition was described as 'quite drunk' before they set the van ablaze, according to the New York Post.

Attorneys wrote in a filing to Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Brian M. Cogan, 'Tossing the Molotov cocktail was a way of expressing anger at those police officers around the country for whom black lives did not matter. It was an act of protest intended to avoid exposing others to harm.'

That wasn't Rahman's only excuse. Her attorneys added that she was suffering 'early trauma' from living as Muslim in post-9/11 New York City; suffering through 'abusive relationships' and 'injustices she has witnessed here and abroad.'

Among those cited were times Rahman spent helping refugees in Turkey and Greece, as well as aiding low-income New Yorkers who were under threat of eviction.

However, an interview prior to the chaos shows Rahman speaking clearly in favor of her cause and not at all slurring her speech.

Rahman and Mattis were initially facing up to life in prison when they were first arrested in 2020, which was then reduced to 10 years in October, 2021 before the plea.... (Read more)

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