Colorado prosecutors have charged three people for allegedly staging a Jussie Smollett-esque hate crime in order to benefit the Nigerian American now-mayor of Colorado Springs during his 2023 race.
Yemi Mobolade, who became a U.S. citizen just five years before he decided to run for mayoral office as an independent, faced off against Wayne Williams, who is a white Republican, in a runoff election announced in early April 2023, KKTV reported.
In a November 6 indictment from the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, Derrick Bernard Jr., 35, Ashley Blackcloud, 40, and Deanna West, 38, were accused of conspiring to pull off a hate crime hoax just one day after the run-off was announced.
Video obtained by KDRO13 shows the dramatic scene that was found at the intersection of Union and Fillmore streets — a campaign sign for Mobolade defaced with the slur “n*gger,” and a KKK-style burning cross:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Colorado said in a Tuesday news release that Bernard sent planning messages to the other defendants saying, “mobilizing my squad in defense. Black ops style big brother.”
Another message referred to his desire to prevent “the klan” from gaining political control of the city, and other messages instructed the other defendants to refrain from talking about the details of the alleged plan over the phone.
In one message from Bernard to Blackcloud, the alleged orchestrator said he wanted to talk “in person” because he was “not talking on the phone bout nothing that’s bout to happen.”
Bernard, Blackcloud, and West then worked together to “stage” the burning cross scene in the early morning hours of April 23, 2023, prosecutors said.
“The three then allegedly spread false information about the event through an email from an anonymous source to various news and civic organizations,” the district attorney’s office added.
The group then allegedly took videos of the vandalized sign and cross and anonymously sent them to news outlets using fake emails, which reported on the event.
Upon a police search of Blackcloud’s car, investigators said they found a can of red spray paint similar to the paint used to write the slur on Mobolade’s campaign sign.
All three defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury for maliciously conveying false information about a threat made by means of fire.
While Bernard and Blackcloud were successfully taken into custody, prosecutors said Tuesday that West was a “fugitive.”
Jefferson County jail records show that she was later apprehended by U.S. Marshals and booked on Wednesday.
Mobolade, who ended up beating Williams and becoming the mayor of Colorado Springs, has yet to comment on the allegations. It is unclear what, if any, relationship to the defendants he had at the time.
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