The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s ruling on Monday in a lawsuit filed by Alpha News that seeks the release of body camera video from Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s arrest.
“The ruling clarifies that releasing the footage would help Minnesotans hold elected officials accountable, which is a benefit to the public that the district court should have considered,” the Upper Midwest Law Center, which represents Alpha News, said in a press release.
Mitchell was arrested in April 2024 and charged with felony burglary after she allegedly broke into her stepmother’s home. In July, Becker County Judge Gretchen Thilmony rejected a lawsuit filed by Alpha News seeking the release of the body camera video from Mitchell’s arrest.
“Under these facts, the rights of an accused in an active criminal proceeding outweigh the public’s interest in seeing the body-cam footage (only a portion of the evidence in the criminal case) prior to trial. The motion for release of the body cam footage is denied,” Thilmony wrote.
But on Monday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals decided to “reverse the district court’s decision and remand for consideration of Alpha News’s motion in a manner not inconsistent with this opinion.”
“As an initial matter, we have little trouble concluding that the benefit articulated by Alpha News falls within the plain meaning of ‘benefit … to the public’ as used in subdivision 7,” the ruling said.
“Because we cannot discern from the district court’s memorandum whether it applied a meaning of ‘benefit … to the public’ that is consistent with our interpretation of that phrase, we reverse the district court’s decision and remand for consideration of Alpha News’s motion in light of this opinion,” it added.
Mitchell, a Democrat from Woodbury, has resisted calls to resign since her arrest. Multiple ethics complaints have been filed against her in the Minnesota Senate.
“The District Court got it wrong by disregarding the important public benefit Alpha News seeks to provide,” said Allie Howell, trial and appellate counsel at UMLC. “Minnesotans cannot hold their elected officials accountable without the information necessary to evaluate their actions. We look forward to continuing this fight for transparency.”
The case will now return to the district court for further proceedings, with the assistance of co-counsel Ryan Wilson.
“Minnesota Statutes, section 13.82, subdivision 7, permits a district court to release body- and dash-camera footage if the public benefit of disclosure outweighs the harm to the public or the person identified in the data,” UMLC explained. “After an initial denial from the district court, the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed, requiring the lower court to evaluate Alpha News’s request under the correct legal standard.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
