Nicole Mitchell burglary trial plows forward with opening statements, witnesses’ testimony
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Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s burglary trial got into the heart of the case Tuesday with both the prosecution and defense offering their versions of her early-morning, unannounced presence in the Detroit Lakes home of her stepmother in April 2024.
But the attorneys parted ways when explaining what led up to an arrest and whether it fit the definition of burglary, which she is charged with. The felony case could threaten her career and the political balance of the Minnesota Senate.
In his opening statements, Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald quoted from Mitchell’s own words, captured on police body camera footage while she was in custody.
“I know I did something bad,” Mitchell had said.
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McDonald said the facts are clear.
“This case won't be about speculation. It won't be about trying to read between any lines,” he said. “This case will be about what the defendant did, what she admitted to, and what you will see and hear with your own eyes and ears.”
He told the jury of Mitchell’s all-black attire, her use of a crowbar to pry open a basement window and her possession of a flashlight covered in a sock.
Body camera footage shown to the jurors presented a stark image of Mitchell in cat burglar attire when captured by the police in the basement, her hands raised in surrender.
She tells officers that her stepmother has been in decline and that their relationship had deteriorated because of it.
“She’s gotten paranoid, and thinks we’re all out to get her and won’t let anyone in the house, and I just wanted to get a couple of my dad’s mementos and that’s all,” Mitchell says to the officers.
When Carol Mitchell, the homeowner and defendant’s stepmother, realizes who the intruder is, she says “It’s Nicole?” and later accuses Mitchell of trying to steal money.
McDonald let the jury know early on that they were weighing a case of a prominent person. He referred to Mitchell as "senator" toward the top of his opening statement. That title had been a subject of pretrial dispute as the prosecutor and Mitchell's defense tangled over whether to keep references to her political position out of the case.
Mitchell, a first-term DFL lawmaker and former broadcast meteorologist for MPR News and KSTP-TV, has denied ill-intent when she drove from her home in Woodbury to the Detroit Lakes house that night.
In the body camera footage, she even asks officers if someone could convince her stepmother to drop the charges against her.
“Is that a thing?” she asked.
Mitchell's attorney, Bruce Ringstrom Jr., said his client was checking on Carol, who has Alzheimer's. He said Nicole Mitchell entered through the basement because Carol Mitchell had taken to barricading her doors.
It was a house that Nicole Mitchell had known well from decades of visiting her father, Rod, who died a year earlier. She had been trying unsuccessfully to gain access to some of his personal items, including a flannel shirt and other mementos. Early testimony and body camera footage cleared up questions about the fate of her father’s ashes, which had been interred already.
“Nobody should be convicted of burglary because what they did makes you feel icky,” said Ringstrom.
The jury of 10 men and four women was seated a day earlier. Tuesday’s proceedings got off to a halting start. It was stuffy inside the courthouse due to a malfunction with the air conditioning. Judge Michael Fritz pleaded with all involved for patience.
During her time on the stand, there were a number of times Carol Mitchell appeared confused, and she apologized for that several times. She didn’t remember the year her husband died or her lawyer’s name. She didn’t remember interacting with Nicole Mitchell the night of the intrusion despite being shown on body camera footage walking through the room while officers spoke to the lawmaker.
During cross examination, the defense attorney asked about Carol Mitchell’s relationship to her stepdaughter after her husband’s death. She didn’t recall Nicole Mitchell inquiring about her health or well being. Carol Mitchell said that Nicole never let her get close to her.
Defense attorney Bruce Ringstrom Jr. also asked Carol Mitchell if she remembered telling a police officer that she felt Nicole was trying to take her out. Carol said after her husband passed, she brought a pistol up from the basement and put it in her bedside drawer for protection.
Carol said she thought the intruder she stepped on while exiting her bed was trying to get into the drawer to get the pistol to shoot her. She said was shocked to learn it was Nicole.
Mitchell is expected to take the stand later in the case.
Other testimony came from law enforcement officers. One was a sheriff’s deputy who answered the 911 call, which was played for the jury. It illustrated the alarm of Carol Mitchell when she heard sounds in her house and said she even stepped over the intruder in her bedroom, whom she referred to with male pronouns during the call.
Another officer was among those who responded to the scene and placed Nicole Mitchell under arrest. He spoke of discussing the family breakdown with the person in custody and her hope of gaining access to important mementos.
The trial could last the rest of the week and may possibly spill into the next week.
The outcome of the trial has far greater impact than just Sen. Mitchell’s fate. While a conviction wouldn’t automatically cost her the legislative seat, it would be hard for her to carry on with a felony on her record.
She has resisted calls to resign and efforts to expel her have fallen short since spring of 2024. It would take a two-thirds vote to remove her if the Legislature took that vote when lawmakers reconvene in February 2024 or sooner in a potential special session.
Many fellow DFLers have defended her right to take the case to trial before siding with Republicans in trying to push her out.
The Senate is currently divided 34 to 33 with Democrats in charge. Any vacancies would be filled in a special election.
