Feds drop hate crime charges in Belle Plaine assault, state charges remain

Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped federal hate crime charges against a white man who’s accused of attacking a Black man outside a Belle Plaine bar, but a state-level assault case remains active.

In early January, a federal grand jury indicted Justin Anthony Kudla on civil rights and hate crime charges in connection with the February 2024 incident.

According to a related criminal complaint in Scott County, Kudla, 36, called an unidentified 38-year-old Black man a racial slur before punching him in the face. The victim lost consciousness and suffered a brain bleed and skull fractures.

Friends and witnesses told investigators that Kudla had previously directed racist and homophobic slurs at the victim.

The federal case had been set for trial on Sept. 29, but in a filing on Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan Gilead moved to dismiss the hate crime charges. Gilead writes that “newly discovered evidence affects the government’s ability to prove the specific-intent element” that’s essential to the hate crime charges. The filing does not elaborate on details of the evidence.

Kudla, who has prior convictions for domestic abuse and stalking, is due back in court on the state charges in late October.

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