Federal jury convicts Santa Cruz man of hate crime in knife attack last July

A federal jury Friday convicted 44-year-old Ole Hougen, of Santa Cruz, of a hate crime after he used a knife to attack a Black man.

According to evidence presented at trial in federal court in San Jose, Hougen confronted a 29-year-old Black man crossing a street in July. Hougen took out a 9-inch knife and swiped multiple times at the man’s head, chest and stomach while yelling racial slurs at him. At the time of the attack, Hougen was on probation after pleading no contest to state charges that he committed a racially-motivated assault on another Black man in 2018.

Hougen faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair said:.

“The FBI worked closely with the Santa Cruz Police Department to bring justice for this shocking, horrific attack.”

Fair added:

“The FBI will use all authority granted to us by federal law to investigate hate crimes meant to threaten and intimidate an entire community. Acts of hate and racism have no place here and will not be tolerated. I urge members of our community to report any hate incidents to local or federal law enforcement so we can bring offenders to justice.”