SAN JOSE — A Santa Cruz man was sentenced to more than 6 years in prison after being convicted of a federal hate crime, officials said.
Ole Hougen, 45, was sentenced to 82 months in prison for attacking a Black man on the street with a knife, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release on Friday. Hougen was convicted of violating the the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act on April 9.
Hougen confronted a 29-year-old Black man in Santa Cruz and shouted racial slurs at him, according to evidence at the trial. Hougen also slashed at the man’s head, chest and stomach with a nine-inch knife while screaming slurs, officials said. A witness said that Hougen stabbed and slashed at the man’s chest and head 10 to 20 times, according to the news release.
Santa Cruz police said that the attack occurred on July 5, 2020 on San Lorenzo Boulevard and Broadway Street, according to a Facebook post. The victim “was able to fend off the attacker” until police arrived, they said.
Hougen was on probation after pleading no contest to charges that he “committed a racially motivated assault on a different Black man in 2018,” according to federal officials. There was other evidence presented at the trial of Hougen allegedly threatening or committing violence while screaming slurs, according to the release. The latest conviction is Hougen’s fourth racially motivated attack in the last seven years committed against Black men, authorities said.
Hougen was indicted in November 2020 was convicted after a six-day trial, marking the first conviction and sentencing under the Shepard-Byrd Act in the Northern District of California, officials said.
“Ole Hougen’s violent assault didn’t just attack an individual, he attacked the entire community associated with the victim,” said Acting Assistant Director Jay Greenberg of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “All crime is unacceptable, but hate crimes are particularly cruel. They strike at an unchangeable, fundamental, and defining part of a victim’s identity. In this way, they attack everyone who identifies with this victim.”
Judge Davila said while announcing his sentence that it was “profoundly wrong to attack someone because of their race” and that Hougen should “remove the hate from his heart” while in prison. Hougen was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and started serving his sentence immediately.
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