Suspect in NYC bomb plot gets new lawyer

A seasoned Manhattan attorney will take over the defense of the Washington Heights terror suspect accused of targeting the NYPD and U.S. military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defense lawyer Lori Cohen, who has represented high-profile drug suspects, will represent Jose Pimentel at his next court appearance. Pimentel had been represented by the Legal Aid Society, but the group had to drop him as a client because it is defending -- in a marijuana case -- the NYPD informant who helped investigators nab the 27-year-old converted Muslim.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office said Cohen's legal fees would be paid by the city.

Pimentel has agreed to waive the six-day deadline for indictment and gave prosecutors until Dec. 5 to get charges from a grand jury, the prosecutor's office said. While such waivers sometimes occur when plea bargaining is underway, the waiver was requested by prosecutors because of the difficulties in getting a grand jury over the Thanksgiving holiday and to allow Pimentel's new attorney to get familiar with the case, said a law enforcement official who didn't want to be named.

Cohen didn't return telephone calls for comment.

Eric Franz, a Manhattan defense attorney not involved in the case, agreed that Legal Aid had an "undeniable conflict" in the case and had to drop Pimentel as a client.

A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who brought the state terror charges, said Pimentel is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 5 to learn of possible grand jury action.

Pimentel, a naturalized American citizen born in the Dominican Republic and an avowed Muslim, was arrested Saturday on charges he wanted to kill American service members who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan with bombs and cause other damage with explosives.

The New York Police Department built the case with the help of an informant after police in Albany, near where Pimentel once lived, flagged him as a subject of interest to New York City police, said another city law enforcement official familiar with the investigation. The NYPD said Pimentel, who has denied the charges, was about an hour away from constructing a prototype pipe bomb when he was arrested.