A Queens, New York man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in a kidnapping case in Paterson, New Jersey. The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Alina Habba.
Reginald Law, 39, had previously pled guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Evelyn Padin in Newark federal court to charges of kidnapping and Hobbs Act robbery.
Court documents and statements reveal that on October 8, 2020, Law and his partner, Maurice Cottman, entered a retail store in Paterson. They accosted a victim working there and forcibly removed him, subsequently transporting him in a U-Haul truck from Paterson to New York. During this incident, Law and Cottman contacted the victim’s family demanding ransom and coerced the victim to provide his debit card and pin, which they used to extract funds from his accounts.
Apart from the prison sentence, Judge Padin also imposed five years of supervised release on Law. His co-conspirator, Cottman, who had pled guilty before Senior U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler, received the same 15-year prison sentence with five years of supervised release on March 29, 2022.
U.S. Attorney Habba credited the successful investigation to the FBI special agents, led by Acting Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly in Newark. The FBI’s New York Field Office and the Paterson Police Department were acknowledged for their assistance in the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Shontae D. Gray from the Economic Crimes Unit represented the government in this case.
Defense counsel for the case was Christopher L. Patella Esq., based in Bayonne, New Jersey.
###
