Becker County judge denies request to release footage of Sen. Mitchell’s arrest

Police bodycam footage of state Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s arrest on a burglary charge won’t be released before the resolution of the criminal case, a Becker County district court judge ruled Wednesday.

Conservative website Alpha News asked the judge to release the police and dash-cam video from the arrest of Mitchell, a DFLer from Woodbury, on April 22 at the home the senator’s late father had shared with her stepmother.

Mitchell’s rights as a defendant in “an active criminal proceeding outweigh the public’s interest in seeing the body-cam footage (only a portion of the evidence in the criminal case) prior to trial,” Judge Gretchen Thilmony wrote in her eight-page order.

James Dickey of the Upper Midwest Law Center had asked Thilmony to release the recordings given the high interest in the case. “This has been a big news story, and the public does have a right to know about a sitting senator,” he said in a hearing last month.

Mitchell faces one first-degree burglary charge and an ethics complaint brought by Republicans in the Senate. She remained in the Senate through the end of the session as one of 34 DFLers with a single-vote majority over the 33 Republicans.

“The questions Alpha News seeks to answer will by necessity be answered through the channels of the justice system, either in a court or jury trial or by the investigation becoming inactive through a plea agreement or other mechanism,” Thilmony wrote. “Circumventing these proceedings is an extraordinary measure that the legislature has plainly prohibited in all but the most important circumstances.”

In response to the Alpha News request, Detroit Lakes Police Chief Steven Todd said he’s prohibited by law from releasing the footage because of the active investigation.

Under the state’s Data Practices Act, “police-worn portable recording systems” are not public data, the judge wrote. Specifically, the recordings requested by Alpha News are “confidential or protected nonpublic while the investigation is active,” she wrote.

Thilmony noted there are “clearly delineated” exceptions that make body-worn recordings public. Those include: a peace officer discharging a firearm, a request from the subject to make the recordings public and an inactive criminal investigation.

The Legislature has made clear that “body-cam footage is not meant to be viewed by anyone (including law enforcement) for any reason other than legitimate law enforcement purposes in a criminal investigation,” Thilmony said.

“Alpha News suggests that failure to disclose these videos will prevent the public, and in particular the Legislature, from making important decisions regarding Mitchell’s career in the Senate,” the judge wrote. “These arguments are precisely why release of investigative materials prior to trial is limited.”

Releasing the footage before trial is an “extraordinary measure” when there is a grave danger to the public, the ruling states.

“A person accused of burglary — here, the burglary of a family member’s home — does not present the same danger,” she wrote. “Arguably even if a senator, or mayor, or member of the Minnesota Board of Cosmetic Examiners killed someone, it would not rise to the level of public interest unless perhaps that person was still at large and capable of future harm. Unlike law enforcement, the mere nature of someone’s position as a senator does not pose an imminent danger to the public.”

Mitchell’s next hearing on the criminal case is set for Monday at 3:30 p.m. in front of Judge Michelle Lawson. At an ethics hearing earlier this month, Mitchell’s lawyer said the criminal case won’t be resolved for months. Mitchell has rejected calls from her own party to resign from the Senate.