The Majority
By Mitch Berg
While the fracas in the MN House is getting all the attention, the DFL is having to battle for their electoral lives in the Senate, where their one-vote rests on Senator Nicole Mitchell.
The reasoning is getting clearer and clearer:
Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald added a second burglary charge Monday against state Sen. Nicole Mitchell focusing on items she had with her when police encountered her stepmother’s home in April 2024 in Detroit Lakes….Mitchell’s case was supposed to go to trial in late January, but her defense team invoked a Minnesota law saying lawmakers cannot be required to attend court proceedings during a legislative session. That delayed Mitchell’s case until June and possibly later, depending on when the 2025 session wraps.
The new complaint includes more details about her alleged interaction with police. It says Mitchell told an officer “I’m just hoping this mistake won’t completely f*** up my life” and that she voiced alarm about affecting her military retirement.
She’s gonna leave the Senate, one way or another, and while two tied chambers isn’t any bigger of a hassle for the Governor and DFL and their agenda than one tied chamber, Woodbury isn’t so utterly safe that they can take anything for granted.
February 12th, 2025 at 8:01 am
defense team invoked a Minnesota law saying lawmakers cannot be required to attend court proceedings during a legislative session
This, right here, is what’s wrong with the system. Burglary is a criminal offense, no? You can kill, murder and maim, but if you are a protected legislative class, no biggie… LAW does not apply, or in this case, MN LAW specifically protects you?
She’s gonna leave the Senate, one way or another – I am not so sure. Last time I checked, Mogadishu Barbie still reps MN in DC but should be in jail, if not deported back to Somalia.
February 12th, 2025 at 8:53 am
JPA,
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about this provision in law, so your not alone. I do disagree.
This is similar to the protection that Congressmen have that says they cannot be detained while in transit to or from Session. They may seem to be antiquated provisions that are rarely invoked today, but they are grounded in historical abuse that had been designed to rig Legislative outcomes. Yes, Sen. Cat Burglar is clearly guilty, but what would you say if AG Ellison were to create some sort of criminal charge against Majority Leader Niska and used that pretext to incarcerate him pending trial? We aren’t as far removed from the abuses of King George as we like to think.
February 12th, 2025 at 10:29 am
This issue totally ticks me off! Had this been a Republican, the DemoCommies and their media butt kissers, would be relentlessly badgering that Senator to resign.
Further, when a vote to expel her from the senate was conducted, she was allowed to vote, a clear conflict of interest.
I’m wondering why the Air Force has not commented on this? In light of her comments to the police when they arrested her, clearly she was immediately concerned about it. Even reservists are required to conduct themselves properly and can’t commit crimes. If she wasn’t on duty, they could be awaiting the outcome of the civil trial.
February 12th, 2025 at 11:15 am
OK, an honorable party and legislator would have stepped down upon being caught on what appears to be an open and shut burglary case, but we are of course talking about the DFL. The only thing I can say in Mitchell’s defense is that sometimes things get really weird when one is dealing with aging parents. I’m dealing with that with my in-laws right now, as things which seem pretty simple–“you’ve got huge resources and you need care”–don’t seem to be honored.
Regarding the law, if you doubt its wisdom, just look at what the Democrats did to President Trump. They took some very dubious interpretations of the law–“we as a city are allowed to enforce federal law on the pretext that the accused may have committed a set of misdemeanors in the city for which the statute of limitations is expired”–and then proceeded to get an “All-Star” set of lawyers for the prosecution (all while ignoring violent felonies committed in the city), at least one of whom, Michael Colangelo, was almost certainly bribed to leave a senior DOJ post to join Bragg’s team.
Like it or not, the area of criminal law is rife with opportunities for such mischief.
February 12th, 2025 at 11:31 am
A question neither asked nor answered is “Why did the judge set a schedule for the trial (after agreeing to the initial delay) that placed the start of trial after the start of the 2025 session”? He could have and should have set the trial to begin in Oct, Nov or December of 2024 when legislative exemption would have been applicable.
It is not really believable to accept the idea that this was accidental and unforeseen.
February 12th, 2025 at 12:19 pm
Brad,
I wouldn’t be surprised if neither the Judge nor the Prosecutor knew about it, and it’s not the Defense Attorney’s job to bring it up until it matters. That does bring up the question of what did the defense attorney know and when did he know, so there’s a slight possibility of legal repercussions. Sitting legislators don’t usually end up going to a criminal trial. Most of the time they get a nice plea deal for their DUI and hope the entire thing blows over.
February 12th, 2025 at 4:41 pm
Smith,
Unless they are Republicans.
February 13th, 2025 at 3:16 pm
I tend to agree that she shouldn’t go to trial while the legislature is in session. And not too surprised that the trial was set in the middle of the session given what I’ve seen in trials. The judge’s schedule tends to be full and very fluid given that lots of plea bargins go to the last minute. So I don’t see anything very criminal here (pun intended).
What I’m more interested in is that she got whacked with another felony charge when they added those burglary tools provision. That’s uncharacteristic behavior for a DA. They usually throw the entire book at a perp to encourage a plea bargin, but in this case he held back another felony count until she delayed her trial. Was he expecting to bargain away a felony to make sure Mitchell could continue to serve when bargained down to misdemeanors? And now that she’s essentially cooked politically he’s bringing out the new charges? I don’t know McDonald from Adam, but is he a political player?