Metro

Plea deal eyed for NY ‘terror’

Prosecutors and defense lawyers are in plea negotiations in a rare state-level terror case against a man charged with building a homemade bomb to try to attack soldiers, police and other government targets, both sides said yesterday.

Prosecutors hope either to have a deal or to take the case to a grand jury by March 1, José Pimentel’s next court date, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Brian Fields told a court.

But the DA’s office hasn’t made any firm offer yet, defense lawyer Lori Cohen said.

The negotiations come less than two months into a case that Mayor Bloomberg and other officials have portrayed as a smart use of a state terror law against a man who posed a clear threat, but that some law-enforcement officials have said the FBI declined to get involved in because of doubts about the strength of the case.

Although there are plea talks, prosecutors “are not backing off” the case, Cohen said.

Prosecutors have said they have “countless hours” of sound and video recordings in the case. Cohen said she was reviewing evidence prosecutors had provided but she wouldn’t detail it.

In the meantime, Pimentel, who didn’t have to appear at yesterday’s brief court session, is being held without bail on charges including weapons possession and conspiracy as terror crimes.

The Dominican-born al Qaeda sympathizer and Muslim convert, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, was making a pipe bomb when arrested in late November, authorities said. He later told police he was about an hour from finishing the weapon and believed Islamic law obligates all Muslims to wage war against Americans to avenge US military action in their homelands, police said.

He maintained a Web site detailing his belief in jihad and told an informant he wanted to attack targets that included police cars and stations, post offices, and soldiers returning home from abroad, authorities said.

A previous defense lawyer said Pimentel wasn’t a true danger or devious plotter, noting that he aired his extremist ideas on the Internet. But police and prosecutors say Pimentel posed a real and imminent peril.

Two law-enforcement officials have said the FBI stayed out of the Pimentel case because agents felt he didn’t have the inclination or ability to act without the informant’s involvement. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the case.