By Staff Correspondent
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.
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