Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s first-degree burglary trial was postponed Friday until after the legislative session ends on May 19.
Becker County District Judge Michael Fritz granted a defense motion to delay the trial that was set to begin Jan. 27 in Detroit Lakes. Fritz said the trial should occur within 60 days of the Legislature’s adjournment.
“If a legislator is forced to stand trial during the legislative session, their constituents would be without a voice during that session,” Fritz wrote, adding that a Minnesota law seeks “to avoid this very situation.”
The senator is a first-term legislator beginning her third session. Her arrest in April 2024 upended the end of the session in which DFLers held only a 34-33 advantage over the GOP. The Senate is currently tied with 33 members in each party but is expected to return to the one-vote DFL advantage after a special election Jan. 28 to fill the Minneapolis seat held by late DFL Sen. Kari Dziedzic.
Early on a Monday morning last April, Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, was arrested in the Detroit Lakes home her late father had shared with her stepmother. The senator was charged with a single charge of first-degree burglary. The senator said she was trying to obtain sentimental items. She has pleaded not guilty.
Last Friday, Mitchell’s lawyers filed a surprise motion, citing a Minnesota law allowing for the delay of court proceedings when the Legislature is in session.
The request cited a 2007 state Court of Appeals decision authorizing “the postponement of a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding in which a legislator is involved as a party.”
Fritz said the law is clear that the delay must be granted. He found the duration of the postponement until May to be “not unreasonable.”