Molotov cocktail-tossing Brooklyn lawyers’ home detention revoked; appeals panel sends them back to lock-up, for now

This May 30, 2020 booking photo provided by the United States Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of New York, shows Colinford Mattis, left, and Urooj Rahman, both Brooklyn attorneys, after they were arrested for allegedly firebombing a police vehicle in New York. (AP)

Two Brooklyn lawyers accused of tossing a Molotov cocktail at an empty NYPD car during a chaotic George Floyd protest last weekend are getting tossed into lockup themselves — for now.

Princeton grad Colinford Mattis, 32, and his alleged accomplice and fellow lawyer Urooj Rahman, 31, lost their home detention status late Friday when three federal judges ordered them returned to official custody pending a further review of the feds push to get their bail revoked for good.

Mattis and Rahman were initially granted permission to stay in their respective homes after posting $250,000 bail, and an initial attempt by federal prosecutors to get that decision overturned failed.

Prosecutors appealed again and Friday the federal panel decided to send Mattis and Rahman back into lock up to wait until a final ruling is reached.

Defense attorneys for Mattis and Rahman blasted the decision to send their clients back into federal custody — even if it might only be temporary.

“The remand of Urrooj Rahman and Colinford Mattis by the Court of Appeals is shocking and wrong,” said Federal Defenders Attorney-in-Charge Deirdre Von Dornum. “They have been at home for a week with perfect behavior, consistent with their lifetimes of law-abiding behavior.”

Mattis, a Brooklyn Community Board 5 member, drove Rahman in his tan mini-van through a clash between protesters and cops at the 88th Precinct stationhouse in Clinton Hill early Saturday, prosecutors said.

As they drove through Fort Greene, Rahman exited the car and threw the incendiary device into an already broken window of the empty NYPD vehicle, the feds say.

Rahman was caught in a photo holding the Molotov cocktail, which was concocted inside a Bud Light bottle, according to evidence presented by prosecutors.

The minivan fled the scene, but Mattis, 32, and Rahman, 31, were apprehended a short while later and arrested.

At their arraignments on Monday, both Mattis and Rahman were released on bail, after their lawyers emphasized the duo’s community ties and argued they were not dangers to society.

The two are facing five to 20 years in prison for the attack.