A Belle Plaine man stands charged with federal hate crimes on allegations he called a Black man a racial slur before throwing a knockout punch that left his victim going in and out of consciousness from one day to the next.

Justin A. Kudla, 35, was charged last week in connection with the attack outside a Belle Plaine bar in the early morning hours of Feb. 3, 2024, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.

Kudla appeared in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Monday and has another hearing scheduled for Friday after being charged with one count of interference with federally protected activities and one count of committing a hate crime. Messages were left Tuesday with Kudla's attorney seeking a reply to the charges.

Kudla, who is white, was charged earlier in Scott County District Court with first-degree assault in connection with the incident outside a bar on Meridian Street. He's scheduled to go on trial in that case on Jan. 21.

The victim is identified in an online fundraiser as 37-year-old Benjamin Morelock of Belle Plaine.

State court records show Kudla's criminal history includes two convictions each for terroristic threats and stalking, and one conviction each for a felony-level violation of a no-contact order and trespassing.

Sherburne County jail
Justin Kudla

According to the Scott County charges:


A woman who works at Huck's Shipwreck Saloon said she heard Kudla call Morelock a racial epithet. Kudla then punched Morelock in the face. He fell to the ground and was unconscious for about 20 minutes.

Morelock was helped to his home nearby.

Two days later, the Huck's employee went to Morelock's home and found him in bed and going in and out of consciousness. She took him to a nearby hospital before he was transferred to Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

A woman who works at the Neisen's Red Door Bar in Belle Plaine described Morelock as "a wonderful person and [Kudla] as very mean when he drinks," the criminal complaint read.

A Red Door bartender said Kudla "was drunk and beyond" that night, the complaint continued. A patron helped escort Kudla outside. She said Kudla had been harassing Morelock a few weeks earlier in the bar, and at one point called him a racial slur. He also was bothered that Morelock is gay, the bartender added.