State Senator Nicole Mitchell confesses in Detroit Lakes burglary case

DETROIT LAKES, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota state senator has pleaded not guilty to robbing her estranged stepmother's home after her father's death. Sen. Nicole Mitchell, a Democrat from the St. Paul suburb of Woodbury, was charged in April. She told police at the time that she broke into the Detroit Lakes home because her stepmother refused to give her items of emotional value from her late father, including his ashes, the criminal complaint said.

In a joint court filing, attorneys for the defense and prosecution said Mitchell was pleading not guilty and had asked the court to schedule both a plea bargain and a jury trial.

Both sides also agreed that prosecutors cannot argue that Mitchell stole a laptop that police seized when she was arrested. Ownership of the laptop was disputed. The agreement states, however, that prosecutors can use evidence from the laptop if the case goes to trial.

Mitchell's arrest threw the 2024 legislative session into turmoil, which ended acrimoniously, and the ethics case against her remains on hold pending further progress in her criminal case. She denied the theft and rejected Republican calls for her resignation. Her status presented a dilemma for her fellow Democrats, who had only a one-seat majority in the Senate and therefore needed her vote to pass anything that did not have bipartisan support. They excluded her from caucuses and removed her from her committees, but did not publicly call for her to resign.

Mitchell was dressed all in black and wearing a black hat when she was arrested, the complaint states. She is also quoted as saying: “I know I did something bad.”

Her lawyer said the dispute with her stepmother was the result of a “broken relationship” that had been exacerbated by age-related problems.

Mitchell's father died in March 2023 at the age of 72, according to his obituary. He was married to Mitchell's stepmother for 40 years.