There was a time — just last year, in fact — when Derrick Bernard Jr. was by all appearances a respected community activist and rap artist in Colorado Springs. But in November he was convicted of first-degree murder, and separately indicted in federal court for a hate crime hoax. 

In the federal indictment, the 35-year-old Black man, who goes by Phoenixx Ugrilla in his role as a rapper and radio DJ, is alleged to have staged a hate crime in 2023 to bolster support and sympathy for then-mayoral candidate Yemi Mobolade.

The indictment does not mention the Colorado Springs mayor by name but does detail how Bernard was in contact with the candidate both before and after the alleged hoax, including a 5-minute phone call three days after the fact. 

Mobolade has declined to comment specifically on the nature of that phone call. Bernard has not responded to questions from The Gazette about the call.

3 indicted for hate crime ‘hoax’ to support Colorado Springs mayoral candidate Mobolade

Bernard was convicted this November of the 2019 murder of rapper William “FYL JACKK” Underwood. Prosecutors argued that Bernard ordered an associate to commit the murder of Underwood after the two had publicly feuded.  

He still faces felony trial in two other cases, as well, including the allegations he tried to kill two Colorado Springs police officers. For all of that, he would seem an unlikely political ally for Mobolade, a businessman, pastor and now mayor of Colorado’s second-largest city.

But before Bernard’s legal troubles surfaced in such spectacular fashion, his reputation was that of a strong public advocate, through his radio station, for the people of southeast Colorado Springs.

Mobolade was just one of a dozen or so local political figures within the orbit of Bernard and the radio station he helped found, known as “Family Flavors The Slide.”

The station, billed as a nonprofit, minority-owned and community-centric media outlet, launched in 2020 with Bernard and Ashley “Trinity” Blackcloud (another one of the defendants in the federal hate crime indictment) as founders and board members.

The Slide

The station, which at first broadcast at 95.7 FM, had an eclectic mix of radio personalities, including Bernard himself, who made the jump from Blazin 98.5 FM. On-air talent also included Rachel Stovall and Regina English — who would go on to be the Republican and Democratic candidates for House District 17 in the 2022 election — who hosted separate shows on the station. 

Stovall’s show, “Rachel’s Round Table,” featured music along with conversations with community leaders including Joe Roybal, back when he was campaigning to become El Paso County sheriff.  

Current state Sen. Tony Exum, D-Colorado Springs, and his son, musician Tony Exum Jr., participated in a community conversation about Black fatherhood, broadcast by The Slide that first year. 

The Gazette reached out to all of those participants regarding their history with The Slide. English did not respond to phone calls, and Roybal didn’t respond to a request made to his public information officer. Exum declined to comment. 

Stovall, currently a columnist for The Gazette, declined comment. 

“Just not interested,” she said. “That phase of my life is over.”

The Slide, beyond just music, often promoted and hosted community events, notably homeless outreach, where Bernard’s staff would partner with area nonprofits to provide food, clothing and services to those in need.

Mobolade has repeatedly said that he only knew Bernard as “a local media personality.” 

By 2022 the station had a presence at many community promotions involving southeast Colorado Springs. Bernard and his entourage performed on the stage as part of the Southern Colorado Juneteenth celebration in America the Beautiful Park. Mobolade, as part of his mayoral campaign, was a keynote speaker at one of the station’s community events that July.

The next month, the station would host a pair of political roundtables about the November 2022 election. Mobolade, Stovall, Exum and Roybal were in attendance, as was Republican Steve Schleiker, who was running for county clerk and recorder.

“As with many other candidates and civic leaders who participated in the station’s programs, I saw it as a platform to connect with constituents and engage in meaningful discussions,” Schleiker told The Gazette.

Schleiker, who won his race in 2022, described The Slide during those years as “a hub for community interaction and dialogue, especially within southeast Colorado Springs.”

Another member of the station’s roundtable talks was El Paso County Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez, who was promoting his candidacy for the 2023 Colorado Springs mayoral race.

“What I recall of (Bernard) and his group, they were involved in promoting the local community in the Southeast,” said Gonzalez. “There was a bunch of collaboration, a lot of local leaders involved.”

As seen on video from the roundtable talk, the discussion was moderated by Blackcloud, now co-indicted with Bernard in the alleged hate crime hoax during the mayoral race.

Backing Mobolade

The Slide held rigorously to its pro-minority and pro-southeast Colorado Springs reputation, even as it stayed otherwise impartial in political races. But that changed during the run-up to the 2023 mayoral race.

In an April 2024 interview, before her indictment in the federal case, Blackcloud told The Gazette that The Slide was “super-supportive” of Mobolade’s campaign.

“Him being the city’s first elected Black mayor, and we’re a Black-owned broadcasting company … we just thought it was excellent,” she said. “We wanted to be part of history.”

Mobolade is Colorado Springs’ first elected Black mayor. In 1997, City Councilmember Leon Young became the first Black mayor when he was appointed on an interim basis.

Mobolade would go on to win first place in the first round of voting, but didn’t win more than 50% of the overall vote, triggering a May runoff election against the second-place finisher, Republican Wayne Williams, the former Colorado secretary of state.

Mobolade would win the May 16, 2023, runoff election against Williams, garnering 57% of the vote. The Slide shared Mobolade’s victory posts and promoted his swearing-in ceremony. 

Nine days later, the Police Department would conduct warranted searches of the vehicles and residences of Bernard and Blackcloud.

Hate crime hoax

In the early morning hours of April 23, 2023, a video was sent to area media, The Slide and the Mobolade campaign from an anonymous email account, purporting to show racially motivated vandalism of a “Yemi for Mayor” campaign sign in the city. It showed a racial slur spray-painted across the sign and a flaming cross set in front.  

In a statement to Gazette media partner KOAA at the time, Mobolade expressed doubt about the legitimacy and motivation behind the vandalism.

“We do not know if the photo is of real events or if it was staged/created. Either way, it’s reprehensible,” the statement reads in part. Mobolade also encouraged the media not to post photos of the vandalism “as not to give this sort of behavior any oxygen.”

The Slide gave considerable airtime to the crime.

“When we heard there was a hate crime that occurred targeting him, we went crazy on the radio about it,” Blackcloud said in her April 2024 interview.

Contacted about his reaction to the Bernard indictment, Williams said he does not think news of the vandalism was the primary reason for his political defeat.

“But it didn’t help,” Williams said, mentioning that he faced false accusations in the aftermath of the vandalism media coverage. “No one responded to all the news coverage of it by saying, well, we should vote for Wayne.”

Police investigated the vandalism, but did not publicly disclose how that investigation went. The federal indictment states that a can of spray paint similar to the one used in the vandalism was found in Blackcloud’s car.

The case was eventually turned over to the FBI, which refused to comment on The Gazette’s inquiries into the case until last month, when federal prosecutors announced the indictment of Bernard, Blackcloud and Deanna West, 38, who also appeared on The Slide and goes by the names “Vital Sweetz” and “Sage West.” 

Prosecutors allege Bernard, Blackcloud and West conducted the vandalism around 3 a.m. in the morning of April 23. Blackcloud and West are accused of taking the photo and video of the vandalism and sending it via email to area media, The Slide and Mobolade’s campaign.

The mayor’s office declined to comment on the five-minute phone call with Bernard on April 26, 2023, after the incident or any other communication Mobolade and Bernard shared. 

Another indictment detail is that the day Mobolade won, Bernard texted Blackcloud a link to apply for job positions with the city, telling her “I want favors, quicker than later.” 

Mobolade, when asked for additional details about his communication with Bernard and the FBI investigators, has issued a series of statements, saying that he “fully cooperated in the investigation, and it is important that the judicial process is followed to allow for a successful prosecution that brings justice for our community.” 

When news of the indictment broke, Longinos and Schleiker said they were shocked.

“While I trust the process to uncover the truth, the damage caused by even the perception of wrongdoing is profoundly frustrating,” Schleiker, who served as the county’s clerk and recorder in 2023 overseeing the mayoral election, said of the alleged hoax.

Bernard, Blackcloud and West have pleaded not guilty to the hoax indictment charges. Bernard and Blackcloud both told The Gazette that the indictment is the latest in a series of criminal allegations both have faced in recent months as part of an intimidation campaign by the criminal justice system.

“It’s a shame what lengths the system will go to in order to misdirect and slander those whom bring the criminality of public servants to the attention of the people,” Bernard told The Gazette from the El Paso County jail. 

Rap sheet

Bernard was arrested by Colorado Springs police on Memorial Day, May 29, 2023, for his alleged role in a physical altercation at an area Waffle House nine months earlier. Both he and Blackcloud, who was also briefly charged in the Waffle House fight, say they were surprised to be arrested for an incident they had thought was a settled matter.

Blackcloud said she and Bernard had been the victims in the fight, and that the restaurant had even given her a cash settlement to help cover her medical bills to recover from injuries she says restaurant employees inflicted. Some of the conflict had even been captured on video by bystanders. Almost a year later, she said no one anticipated criminal charges to be filed. 

Blackcloud claimed the police searches regarding the campaign sign vandalism case just two days before Bernard’s arrest on Memorial Day was the start of a pattern of harassment by the criminal justice system, leading to Bernard eventually facing murder and attempted murder charges in the months that followed. 

“They’ve turned up their assault on the First Amendment, on journalism in our city, on independent news … they have been trying to destroy The Slide,” she said. 

But in the fall of 2023, it seemed like Bernard’s assault and menacing charges from the Waffle House (with the felony assault charges later being dismissed), and the potential of charges over the sign vandalism were his most serious legal problems.

Some of the good will he had built up with The Slide was still working in his favor, too. English, now the elected representative of House District 17, protested Bernard’s detainment and treatment inside the El Paso County jail in early August, standing in the jail lobby, holding up a sign supporting Bernard and bearing the hashtag #FreeTheBird. 

Bernard, meanwhile, has been anything but silent during his incarceration. 

“Dear Yemi, do the right thing,” began a video posted on Aug. 31, 2023, featuring Bernard’s voice on The Slide’s official YouTube channel.

The video tries to alternately shame and cajole the newly elected Mobolade to assist Bernard in his legal troubles. 

Meanwhile, The Slide has been diminished by its’ founders’ legal troubles. The site has lost all its paid programming, and is no longer playing on streaming services. As of press time the “Listen Live NOW” link on station’s website, theslidewbn.org, did not work. The last show podcast uploaded by the station was in March 2023. Attempts to contact several of the former DJs went unanswered.

The social media feeds of the many community leaders who used to support The Slide are conspicuously quiet. The station’s last Instagram post that wasn’t about proclaiming Bernard’s or Blackcloud’s innocence is nearly a year old, celebrating the Homeless Not Hopeless Vol. 11 community event. 

“The mission doesn’t stop, the work doesn’t stop,” Blackcloud told The Gazette this week. She said the station continues to sponsor community events, even if its online presence and cache with community leaders has diminished.

According to Longinos, the good things The Slide legitimately did, like the community outreach events and the candidate forums, “are valuable and we need other nonprofits and organizations to step up and be that voice.”

Schleiker said he feels angry and deeply disappointed about Bernard’s murder conviction and other alleged misdeeds.

“Actions like this could undermine the integrity of the work we all strive to uphold, especially when so many of us work tirelessly to serve our community with honesty and transparency.” 

Bernard, in his recent jailhouse messages to The Gazette, says he will appeal his murder conviction, and intends to continue fighting his other charges.

“God is great,” he said in one recent message. “Stay tuned, bro.” 

Colorado Politics reporter Ernest Luning contributed to this report.