Sen. Nicole Mitchell pleads not guilty; prosecution agrees she didn’t steal laptop in alleged burglary

DFL state Sen. Nicole Mitchell has pleaded not guilty and lawyers have agreed she didn’t steal a laptop she had when she has arrested on a first-degree burglary charge, according to a pretrial pact signed by both prosecutors and defense lawyers.

A hearing set for Friday has been canceled. Dates have not been set for settlement discussions or a trial.

The Becker County District Court filing said the laptop taken into evidence by the Detroit Lakes police has been forensically examined and cannot be used to build a burglary charge against Mitchell. “The state may not argue that the defendant stole the laptop from the residence in question as part of any theory of burglary,” the stipulation agreement said.

The prosecution can, however, use the laptop and evidence gathered from it, the agreement said. Mitchell is charged with entering her late father’s home, where his widow lives, without permission with the intent to commit a crime.

Defense attorneys Dane DeKrey and Bruce Ringstrom Jr. had previously sought a forensic analysis of the laptop that the alleged victim claimed was stolen in the early hours of April 22. Police who arrested Mitchell were immediately suspicious about the laptop, one of two they found in the senator’s backpack.

Ringstrom said the stipulation that Mitchell owned the laptop was critical. “That one piece of evidence was very important to us because of how the complaint was written and how law enforcement perceived her relationship to the item,” he said.

The agreement came after the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension conducted a review of the laptop. Ownership of the second laptop wasn’t in dispute; it incontrovertibly belonged to Mitchell, Ringstrom said.

Prosecutor Brian McDonald did not respond to phone or email messages seeking comment.

Mitchell was arrested in Detroit Lakes by officers responding to a burglary call about 4:45 a.m. who found her in the basement of the home “dressed in all black clothing and a black hat,” according to the complaint. As she was being detained, she told her stepmother “something to the effect of, ‘I was just trying to get a couple of my dad’s things because you wouldn’t talk to me anymore,’” the complaint said. Her father died last year.

The initial arrest warrant said Mitchell had attempted to take a laptop that appeared to belong to her father’s widow. An officer “opened the laptop and pressed a button and victim’s name popped up. The laptop was not password protected. Mitchell then stated that victim gave her the laptop ‘way back when,’” the warrant said.

The stepmother told the officer she never gave Mitchell the laptop, the document said.

“Officers searched the backpack and discovered two laptops, a cellphone, Mitchell’s Minnesota driver’s license, Mitchell’s Senate identification, and miscellaneous Tupperware,” the document read. Mitchell allegedly told an officer that both laptops were hers and that she had “just gotten into the house,” and commented, “Clearly, I’m not good at this.”

Mitchell is a first-term senator from Woodbury. Her arrest in Detroit Lakes escalated the partisan rancor in the 2024 legislative session. Republicans unsuccessfully sought her immediate removal from office and filed an ethics complaint against her that is still pending.

The senator returned to the Capitol a week after her arrest and voted through the end of the session. On Tuesday, she was at the State Fair in the Senate booth, according to her social media posts.