A judge on Friday granted Minnesota Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s request to delay her felony burglary trial until after the legislative session.
“The Defendant’s motion to continue the jury trial currently scheduled for January 27, 2025, is GRANTED. The trial shall be rescheduled within 60 days of May 19, 2025, the end of the legislative session,” Becker County Judge Michael Fritz said in his order.
Mitchell, a Democrat from Woodbury, was originally scheduled to go on trial starting Jan. 27, two weeks into the legislative session. However, earlier this month, her attorneys filed a request to postpone the trial until after May 19, the required adjournment date for the 2025 legislative session. They cited a 2007 Minnesota Court of Appeals decision authorizing “the postponement of a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding in which a legislator is involved as a party.”
Mitchell was arrested and charged with first-degree burglary, a felony, last April after she was found inside her stepmother’s house in Detroit Lakes before dawn. Despite the charges, Mitchell refused to resign. Two of the state’s most prominent Democrats, Gov. Tim Walz and party chair Ken Martin, called for her to step down last spring.
“It’s been months of questions and speculation about Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s actions in April last year, and a bipartisan group of Senators have called for her resignation to stop the distraction,” Senate GOP Leader Mark Johnson said.
“Sen. Mitchell’s last-minute decision to request trial delay this week is an abuse of her status as a Senator. She also has the right to waive her privilege to a delay to bring this entire matter to a swift conclusion. This is not a victimless crime; this delay revictimized those involved, and Senate Republicans will not stand idly by while Sen. Mitchell abuses her position to deny justice.”
Mitchell pled not guilty to the charges in August. As it stands, the Minnesota Senate is tied 33-33 following the death of Sen. Kari Dziedzic last month.
Hank Long contributed to this report.
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.
