Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade is facing calls from local politicians to explain his communications with a supporter who was indicted for faking a hate crime to boost the now-mayor’s candidacy.
Mobolade last week claimed that he was the “victim of a hate crime” even after Derrick Bernard, a black man who has since been convicted of an unrelated murder, was indicted for scrawling the n-word on a Mobolade campaign sign and lighting a cross on fire in April 2023. The election-eve hoax was intended to gin up sympathy for Mobolade, who is black, in his race against a white Republican. Mobolade was soon after elected in the city, a traditional Republican stronghold.
The indictment says that Bernard was in communication with Mobolade, including him letting him know that there was a “plot amidst” beforehand, messaging him the day of the hoax to say that he guaranteed that he…
