DETROIT LAKES (AP) – A state senator from Minnesota, United States has pleaded not guilty to burglarising the home of her estranged stepmother after her father’s death.
Senator Nicole Mitchell, a Democrat from the St Paul suburb of Woodbury, was charged in April. She told police at the time that she broke into the home in the northwestern Minnesota town of Detroit Lakes because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her late father, including his ashes, according to the felony criminal complaint.
In a joint court filing on Tuesday, defense and prosecution attorneys said Mitchell was pleading not guilty, and was asking the court to schedule both a settlement conference and jury trial.
The two sides also agreed that prosecutors won’t be able to argue that Mitchell stole a laptop computer that police seized when they arrested her. Ownership of the laptop had been in dispute.
The agreement said that prosecutors can, however, use evidence from the laptop if the case goes to trial.
Mitchell’s arrest roiled the 2024 legislative session, which came to an acrimonious end, and ethics proceedings against her remain on hold pending developments in her criminal case.
She denied stealing and rejected Republican calls for her resignation. Her status posed a dilemma for her fellow Democrats because they held only a one-seat majority in the Senate, so they needed her vote to pass anything that lacked bipartisan support.
