Minnesota lawmakers return from break to uncertainty after DFL lawmaker’s arrest
Updated 8:01 p.m.
The Minnesota Senate deferred action Wednesday against a DFL member charged with a felony, with a tie vote sending an ethics complaint through its normal process rather than the fast track toward possible expulsion that Republicans sought.
Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s legal troubles consumed the Capitol on the first day back from a short recess. The situation has put the power dynamic and policy prospects in question for the last four weeks of the legislative session.
DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said the ordeal and the reverberations on the Senate’s business is “heartbreaking” and “troubling, and they will test us.” But she said lawmakers need to proceed with due process in mind. Sen. Mark Johnson, the Republican leader, warned of a possible “cloud” over end-of-session decisions.
Mitchell was arrested early Monday for allegedly breaking into the Detroit Lakes home of her stepmother. Police at the scene said the Woodbury legislator told them she wanted to retrieve her late father’s ashes, photos, a flannel shirt and other items of sentimental value from the home but her stepmother wouldn’t speak with her, according to a criminal complaint.
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Following the release of the complaint, Senate leaders split over the path forward and whether Mitchell, the 34th Senate DFL vote in a one-seat majority, should keep her seat. Senate Republicans filed an ethics complaint against Mitchell around the burglary arrest.
The issue dominated floor debate Wednesday and forced a delay of other Senate business that had been planned. DFL leaders said they dropped a vote on several bills and an update to Senate rules due to the arrest.
The chamber weighed a motion to speed up Mitchell’s possible expulsion. It failed in a tie vote, an indicator of how other partisan proposals could fare in the final weeks of the legislative session.
Prior to the vote, Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, said the Senate needed to move quickly given the critical point in the session. She called it "unprecedented that a member of this body has been arrested for such a grave crime as first-degree burglary … we have to take the unprecedented action to remedy this grievous action here in the Senate."
Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, pushed back against the measure, saying those pushing for expulsion sought to be “the judge, the jury and the executioner without giving an accused even the opportunity to respond in this forum to the allegations that have been made. It is unbecoming.”
It would take a two-thirds vote ultimately to remove Mitchell from the Senate.
Mitchell’s vote is, on paper, the deciding factor in what makes it through the DFL-led Capitol and what doesn’t when matters break along party lines.
With a potential 33-33 tie in the chamber — and no tiebreaker from any other official as is the case with the vice president in the U.S. Senate — DFL priorities like gun restrictions, an equal rights amendment with protections for abortion and gender care and several budget revisions could stall.
As lawmakers return from their Passover break on Wednesday, here’s a recap of what is known and what might develop.
What happened?
In a criminal complaint released Tuesday, authorities allege that Mitchell engaged in first-degree burglary. According to the complaint, Mitchell entered her stepmother’s house in Detroit Lakes early on Monday morning through a window. She wore all black and carried a flashlight covered with a sock.
She is alleged to have entered the basement where she was looking for items of her deceased father’s — including his ashes. When her stepmother heard noise in the basement, she called the police.
Detroit Lakes police officers arrested Mitchell at the scene and she told them she wanted to grab the items because her stepmother wasn’t talking to her anymore.
A redacted 911 call transcript released Wednesday revealed the confusion before 5 a.m. Monday. Officers arrived within a few minutes of the woman’s call.
The caller told a dispatcher that the person who broke in had retreated to the basement after she “tripped over ‘em” on the floor next to her bed. She referred to the intruder with male pronouns throughout the call.
“I don’t know if he’s breaking out the back window or what,” the woman said, according to the transcript. At another point, she said, “I don’t know what the hell is going on. My God.”
She was advised to stay put as officers searched the basement.
“Make yourself known!” an officer was heard to say in the background as the call came to an end.
A separate dispatch log from the Becker County Sheriff’s Office indicated the officers had detained Mitchell by 4:52 a.m. and she was placed under arrest less than an hour later.
A Becker County District Court judge granted Mitchell’s release from jail on Tuesday with conditions that she have no contact with the victim and does not leaving the state without written court approval. The judge also said a restraining order was issued Tuesday. Bail without conditions was set at $40,000.
Upon her release, Mitchell posted on Facebook that a “private matter” became very public and it didn’t play out in the fashion alleged. Mitchell wrote that her stepmother was dealing with memory problems and paranoia. She said she drove there to “check on that family member.”
“I entered a home I have come and gone from countless times in the past 20 years, where my son even once had his own room,” Mitchell said. “Unfortunately, I startled this close relative, exacerbating paranoia and I was accused of stealing, which I absolutely deny.”
No one was home at the house when an MPR News reporter stopped in earlier Tuesday.
What does this mean for Senate operations?
It’s not entirely clear.
The uncertainty over how Mitchell — and the chamber — would move forward already led to hiccups Wednesday morning. A scheduled Senate Rules Committee hearing was cancelled and measures due for floor votes were pulled just hours before senators gaveled in.
Murphy told the chamber that she wanted to give people time to process before taking up those proposals. The ethics inquiry is set to move forward — though a timeline hasn’t been set.
In the meantime, Murphy said that Mitchell could participate in Capitol business if she felt up to it. Mitchell’s attorney in an email said “she is motivated to get back to work.”
“Senator Mitchell is a duly-elected member of the Senate. She's elected to represent the interests of the people who sent her here,” Murphy told reporters. “I anticipate that she is a she's going to participate until she can’t anymore.”
The Minnesota Senate retained a COVID-19 rule that allows for remote voting, which has been used by senators dealing with family or health situations. It has never been tested around a criminal proceeding and could lead to clashes if Mitchell tries to steer clear of the Capitol while still acting on bills.
Murphy, along with her DFL colleagues, also said that Mitchell had the right to defend herself, in the Senate ethics investigation against her, and in court.
“This is not the first incident where someone has run afoul of the law. And the Legislature has a process to deal with it,” she said. “Senator Mitchell, just like every other member of this body, and people in the state of Minnesota, are entitled to and have a right to due process. She has a due process right in this body. She has a due process right in court.”
Johnson said the charges were disturbing and suggest that Mitchell’s decision to break into the home was premeditated. He and other Republicans have called on Mitchell to resign immediately.
“With these questions hanging over the the Senate, it really impacts our ability to get the work done for Minnesotans,” he said.
Johnson said Republicans were ready to throw sand in the gears if Democrats slow-rolled an ethics investigation and pressed on with passing priority bills without their input.
The Minnesota Republican Party and other conservative groups have also called on Mitchell to resign her seat.
What do Senate rules say?
Senate rules state that members must “adhere to the highest level of ethical conduct as embodied in the Minnesota Constitution, state law and Senate rules.”
The rules also set up a process to call for a subcommittee on ethical conduct to launch an investigation and provide an advisory opinion about what consequences should be. That would take some time. But it could result in a call for Mitchell to be stripped of committee assignments or tougher penalties.
The rules also say that an ethics probe can be deferred if criminal proceedings are still ongoing, which is the case here. Mitchell’s next court hearing isn’t until June 10 — three weeks after the deadline for adjournment.
Ethics actions typically take weeks or months so a swift resolution would be unusual. Expulsion would take a two-thirds vote, which would be unlikely. It’s so rare that some of the last guidance around it comes from 1986.
What hangs in the balance?
A number of policy and finance bills could get detoured, and particularly anything with a more partisan slant.
A set of gun restrictions could be off the table this year if Mitchell is barred from voting or resigns. Gun owners groups have been urging her resignation following the arrest.
Efforts that would require insurance plans to cover the cost of abortion or gender-affirming care could also face a tougher path forward, as could an effort to put an equal rights constitutional amendment before voters in a future election.
Several budget bills would likely have to be ditched or dramatically reshaped. Republicans would have far greater leverage to negotiate deals. Or DFL leaders could significantly curtail the agenda as they wind up the session early. The adjournment date is May 20.
It’s not just the Senate either. House members have begun to weigh in. Veteran Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, said on the social media site “X” that this changes the endgame equation for his party.
“We can have an orderly end of session,” he wrote on Tuesday. “This requires the final month of session be limited to items w/ bipartisan support. That way we don’t drag Sen. Mitchell back into the public eye. Instead we let her focus on her health and family.”
What else is still on the table?
The Legislature returns from its last recess with a pile of touch-up spending bills and a public construction project yet to finish.
Lawmakers cleared their final committee deadline to move bills with a spending component through committee last week. That means that the last four weeks of session will center on workshopping budget priorities that can clear both chambers and moving them off the House and Senate floors.
Even before the Mitchell trouble, some big DFL priorities were at risk of getting pushed off board as lawmakers aim to keep the state afloat financially. While the state has a $3.7 billion projected budget surplus for the budget that ends in 2025, a potential deficit lies on the horizon.
Technically, lawmakers don’t have to do anything this year. They passed a two-year budget last year that will run through next summer so they won’t risk a budget shutdown by running out the clock without adopting more proposals.
After funneling budget bills through committees over the last several months, lawmakers will now get a last chance to tweak them before they get final seals of approval from the Senate Finance Committee or House Ways and Means Committee and come to a floor vote.
Republicans have said they hope that DFL leaders would put up more funding to aid emergency medical services. GOP lawmakers argue the $16 million budget target that DFL leaders put forward wouldn’t resolve issues that rural providers face.
The issue could become central to a deal around a capital investment bill in the final weeks of the legislative session. Republicans have unique leverage in the negotiations since their votes are needed to pass a bill and let the state take on debt to fund the projects.
MPR News Moorhead correspondent Dan Gunderson contributed to this report from Detroit Lakes.