A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a Colorado Springs man to 46 months in federal prison for staging a hate crime to generate outrage and support for a Black candidate running for mayor of the city in 2023.
“This isn’t a case about threats against one person; it was a case about threats against an entire community,” said U.S. District Judge Regina Rodriguez. “Threats against public officials are very serious matters and have been on the rise."
When Derrick Bernard, 36, met Yemi Mobolade in 2023, he promised to help the Black independent candidate gain traction during a tight runoff in the mayoral election against Wayne Williams, a Republican-backed former secretary of state who is white. In text messages to Mobolade, Bernard promised “Black ops style big brother,” and “I can guarantee the finish.”
The plan turned out to entail the circulation of photos among local media and online of a cross burned beside Mobolade’s campaign sign, which had been defaced with a racial epithet.
An FBI investigation uncovered the apparent hate crime as a hoax designed to drive voters to turn out and put Modolade into the lead. While Mobolade became the Colorado city’s first elected Black mayor with 58% of the vote, he credited the win to his own campaign and coalition-building. On the witness stand during trial, Mobolade maintained he knew nothing of Bernard’s plan and recalled his family living in fear after seeing the hallmark of the Ku Klux Klan targeted at him.
“This was not just politics for me; this was personal, Mr. Bernard. What you and others have done has caused real harm, not just to me, but to members of my campaign,” Mobolade said during sentencing.
