Man sentenced in cross burning hoax to help elect Colorado Springs' first Black mayor

A man who helped stage a cross burning which he says was intended to help elect the first Black mayor of Colorado Springs was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to nearly four years in prison.

Derrick Bernard said Mayor Yemi Mobolade knew about his plan, but U.S. District Judge Regina Rodriguez said jurors rejected that claim when they convicted Bernard and his wife in the 2023 plot last year.

Because cross burning is protected by the First Amendment, the case came down to whether the cross burning was a threat against Mobolade.

Jurors found Bernard, who is also Black, and his wife, Ashley Blackcloud, were guilty of making a threat or conveying false information about a threat. They were also found guilty of conspiring to do that together.

Rodriguez said setting the cross on fire and writing a racial slur on one of Mobolade's campaign signs and then spreading word about it harmed Mobolade and his family and affected the city's election. She noted Bernard, whose lawyer said he has mental health issues, has “deeply held conspiratorial views” about officials in Colorado Springs.

Mobolade, who communicated with Bernard before and after the cross burning, has denied any involvement. With Bernard sitting a few feet away, the mayor told Rodriguez that he and his wife stopped walking their children to school out of fear for their safety and purchased an escape ladder because his wife was having nightmares about their home being set on fire.

"I don’t believe any family should have to live like that,” he said.

Mobolade said Bernard, who was in contact with community leaders through his work at a local radio station, “took advantage of my openess.” Now running for re-election, Mobolade said he is more cautious. The former pastor said he is praying for God to help him forgive.

Bernard called Mobolade's comments a “speech for his relection.”

Bernard was previously sentenced to life in state prison after being convicted in 2024 of orchestrating the killing of a rapper in Colorado Springs.

Blackcloud was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, but is appealing her conviction and sentence.

A third person indicted in the cross-burning scheme, Deanna West, pleaded guilty to one count of being part of a conspiracy to set the fire and then spread false information about it, under a plea agreement with prosecutors. According to that agreement, West’s lawyer and government prosecutors agreed that the conspiracy’s goal was to interfere in the campaign of Mobolade’s opponent and create the belief that Mobolade was being discouraged from running because of his race.