Colorado Springs duo still on hook in hate crime hoax
Amanda Pampuro
DENVER (CN) — A federal judge on Friday declined to dismiss federal charges filed against two people who staged a burning cross in 2023 as a hoax to generate voter outrage and support for a Black candidate running for mayor of Colorado Springs.
“A reasonable jury could find that the defendants’ communication fits into the definition of a true threat,” wrote U.S. Judge Regina Rodriguez in a 13-page order.
No candidate won a majority in the April 2023 Colorado Springs mayoral election, prompting a runoff between independent Yemi Mobolade, a Black Nigerian immigrant, and former Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams, who is white.
To generate support for Mobolade ahead of the vote, prosecutors say Derrick Bernard Jr., 35, and Ashley Blackcloud, 40, staged a hate crime hoax on April 23, 2023. The political stunt involved sending local media footage and photos of a cross burning in Colorado Springs beside a campaign sign defaced to call then-candidate Mobolade a racial slur.
With 58% of the vote, Mobolade ultimately won, becoming the first Black mayor of Colorado Springs. It's unclear whether he was involved in the plan, but according to prosecutors, Bernard told him in a Facebook message, “I’m mobilizing my squadron in defense and for the final push. Black ops style big brother. The klan cannot be allowed to run this city again.”
In a November 2024 grand jury indictment, prosecutors quoted messages between the defendants coordinating and congratulating each other on the media stunt. On his Facebook account, Bernard had vowed to “drown” the person responsible for burning the cross.
Federal prosecutors charged Bernard and Blackcloud each with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and one count of interstate intimidation using fire. Combined, the crimes carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
A third person, Crystal West, pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy in March and is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
In separate motions to dismiss, Bernard and Blackcloud argued their message was protected political speech rather than a true threat and that the law prohibiting fire intimidation is meant to be applied against bomb threats, not cross burnings.
"A cross burning is not a bomb threat nor is it an arson threat. It is a symbolic burning of one’s own property," wrote Blackcloud's attorney, Britt Cobb of Denver, in her Feb. 5 motion to dismiss.
Neither Cobb nor Bernard's attorney, Tyrone Glover, immediately responded to an inquiry for comment.
“Defendants argue that they did not intend to threaten candidate 1 but instead intended to support his campaign,” Rodriguez wrote. Since context separates protected free speech from a true threat, the Joe Biden appointee concluded that “it is up to the jury to determine whether the cross burning was a true threat or merely political speech.”
Bernard and Blackcloud are scheduled for a five-day jury trial starting May 19.