Colorado couple found guilty over cross burning meant to draw sympathy for Black candidate

DENVER — A couple who staged a cross burning to generate voter sympathy for the man who became Colorado Springs' first Black mayor was convicted Friday of conspiring to set the fire and spread false information about it.

Prosecutors argued that Ashley Blackcloud, who is indigenous and Black, and Derrick Bernard, who is Black, orchestrated and then broadcast the hoax to aid the candidate. However their actions still amounted to a criminal threat, prosecutors said.

The cross burning happened in 2023 during the run-up to a mayoral election in the state's second-largest city. Images and video of the cross, which was burned in front of a campaign sign defaced with a racial slur, were emailed to local news outlets to boost the campaign of Yemi Mobolade.

A jury found Blackcloud and Bernard guilty of using interstate commerce — the internet and email — to make a threat or convey false information about an attempt to intimidate Mobolade with a fire. They were also found guilty of conspiring to do that.

Blackcloud's attorney did not deny at this week's trial that Blackcloud participated in setting up the cross burning and sign defacement. Bernard denied participating but acknowledged during testimony that he disseminated the images even though he knew it was a hoax.

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

The jury came up with a verdict after about four hours of deliberation. Blackcloud and Bernard each face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for the most serious charge.

Prosecutors argued that even though Blackcloud's and Bernard's intention was to help Mobolade, he perceived the actions as a threat, with his family buying fire ladders and a medical trauma kit for their house.

''What was Yemi and his family supposed to see through the flames? A joke? Theater?'' said Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bryan Fields. The defendants, he said, ''needed the public to believe this was a real threat in order for it to have the effect that they wanted of influencing an election.''

Fields likened it to a student who calls in a fake bomb threat at a school in order to avoid taking a test, forcing the school to evacuate and causing other students anxiety.

Blackcloud's defense attorney, Britt Cobb, said the cross burning was merely ''meant to be a political stunt, political theater'' to show that racism was still present in Colorado Springs. Blackcloud ''did not mean this as a real threat of violence,'' Cobb said.

Cobb further argued that Mobolade knew it was a hoax early on, because his campaign staff said in text messages that they were confident it was staged and because Mobolade didn't immediately call the police.

''If he knows it's a hoax, there's no way its a threat,'' she said.

Mobolade has strongly denied any involvement, but Cobb suggested the politician knew something of the plans, citing communications between Bernard and Mobolade before and after the cross burning. The FBI's investigation did not determine that Mobolade had a role in the cross burning.

''You cannot maliciously convey a threat,'' added Bernard's attorney, Tyrone Glover, ''when you're trying in your own way to help somebody.''

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Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.