Couple set to go on trial over staged cross burning in front of campaign sign for Black candidate

DENVER — In the run-up to the 2023 mayoral election in Colorado Springs, a racial slur was scrawled across a Black candidate's sign and a cross set on fire in front of it.

It was a stunt to generate sympathy and support for the Black candidate, Yemi Mobolade, prosecutors have said, but two people accused of staging it are set to go on trial Monday, charged with making a threat against him.

Mobolade, the city's first Black mayor, is scheduled to testify in the case as a victim, according to court documents.

But one of the defendants claims Mobolade himself was a participant in the plan to help him win. And the defendant's attorneys say their alleged actions were political theater — free speech that is constitutionally protected and wasn't meant to cause harm.

"This was a hoax in every sense of the word,'' defendant Ashley Blackcloud told The Associated Press. She said Mobolade knew in advance about their plans to burn the cross, but she would not comment further, citing a court order that bars discussing information gathered in the case before the trial. Blackcloud, who is indigenous and Black, said the stunt was not intended to hurt anyone.

Mobolade has previously denied any involvement emphatically. A city spokesperson, Vanessa Zink, said the mayor did not want to want to make any additional comment.

The second defendant — Blackcloud's husband, Derrick Bernard — is serving a life sentence after being convicted last year of ordering the killing of a rapper in Colorado Springs. The man charged with carrying out the killing was recently acquitted, and Bernard is appealing his conviction.

Messages left for Blackcloud's lawyer and Bernard's lawyer were not returned.

However, in motions to dismiss the case they pointed out that the cross was set on fire in the middle of the night, which no one other than the defendants apparently saw.

They are, however, accused of spreading word about it in emails to the media and others that include images of the scene.

They are each charged with using a means of interstate commerce — the internet and email — to make a threat and conveying false information about an attempt to intimidate Mobolade with a fire. They are also both charged with being part of a conspiracy to do that. They have pleaded not guilty.

According to jury instructions in the case, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bernard and Blackcloud intended Mobolade to fear that violence would result in order for them to be found guilty.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Regina M. Rodriguez ruled that the alleged actions are not ones that are clearly protected by the First Amendment, which would have required her to dismiss the case.

''It is up to the jury to determine whether the cross burning was a true threat or merely political speech,'' she wrote.

A third person indicted in the alleged scheme, Deanna West, pleaded guilty in March 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.

West is also scheduled to testify for the government.

According to the indictment, Bernard communicated with Mobolade before the cross burning on April 23, 2023, and after Mobolade won election in a May 6, 2023, runoff.

About a week before the cross burning, Bernard told the then-candidate in a Facebook message that he was ''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.''

They spoke for about five minutes on the telephone three days after the incident.

In a video statement posted on social media in December, Mobolade said he had fully cooperated with the investigation and had been truthful with law enforcement.

''I fully and truthfully cooperated throughout this investigation. I had no knowledge, warning or involvement in this crime,'' he said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Colorado, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment on whether it had questioned or investigated Mobolade about whether he was involved in the cross burning.