When the stepmother of Democratic state Sen. Nicole Mitchell called police at 4:45 a.m. Monday, she said someone broke into her house and “ran downstairs into my basement,” according to the 911 transcript obtained by the Star Tribune on Thursday.
911 transcript gives detail of Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s alleged burglary. She says she won’t resign.
A caller now identified as Mitchell’s stepmother told a dispatcher she “tripped over” a person who was on the floor next to her bed. That person was later identified as the DFL senator.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
April 25, 2024 at 10:35PM
Police asked her if she got a look at the person, to which she responded: “I tripped over ‘em. Ah, he was on the floor next to my bed. He ran downstairs into my basement.”
When they arrived, officers found Mitchell, a first-term senator from Woodbury, in the basement of her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes house. Mitchell was dressed in black and admitted to entering her stepmother’s house through a sliding basement window, according to the criminal complaint. Police said they found a flashlight covered with a black sock — dimming its brightness — near Mitchell, and a backpack wedged in the open basement window. That backpack contained several items, including a laptop that the criminal complaint suggests belonged to Mitchell’s stepmother.
Mitchell was arrested and charged with felony first-degree burglary. She allegedly told police, “I know I did something bad,” but that she entered the home to take some of her late father’s belongings, including his ashes.
The charging document further states that as Mitchell was being detained, she told her stepmother “something to the effect of, ‘I was just trying to get a couple of my dad’s things because you wouldn’t talk to me anymore.’” Her father died last year, and his estate was left entirely to his wife, according to court documents.
The burglary charge against Mitchell has cast uncertainty over the final month of Minnesota’s legislative session. Democrats hold the state Senate by a one-seat margin and can’t pass a long list of bills without Mitchell’s vote. Mitchell said through her attorney Thursday that she doesn’t intend to resign from the Senate.
Senate Republicans filed an ethics complaint against Mitchell on Wednesday and demanded an immediate investigation. Democrats rejected a motion to expedite the investigation and said the matter will be reviewed within 30 days. The Legislature is required to adjourn by May 20, meaning the Senate’s ethics subcommittee could take up the complaint after lawmakers have left St. Paul.
Mitchell shared a version of events to Facebook on Tuesday afternoon that seemed to contradict some of the statements she allegedly made to law enforcement. The senator denied stealing, and said she drove from Woodbury to Detroit Lakes in the middle of the night to conduct a welfare check on a family member who has declined “due to Alzheimer’s and associated paranoia.”
Her attorney later told the Star Tribune that Mitchell was also trying to “retrieve a couple of items that she felt were being wrongfully withheld from her.”
In the 911 transcript, Mitchell’s stepmother didn’t appear to know who was in her house. She answered several of the dispatcher’s questions, detailing how “there’s a basement — a drop window that can crank open,” and how her yard lights hadn’t turned on despite having a motion sensor.
“Please, just get here,” she told the dispatcher.
“Are you armed?” the dispatcher asked.
“I have a little steak knife in my hand right now,” the stepmother responded.
The 911 call ended when police arrived. An officer could be heard shouting, “Make yourself known!”
On Tuesday, a judge signed off on a restraining order against Mitchell on behalf of an alleged victim identified in court as C.M. Mitchell’s stepmother is Carol Mitchell.
One of Mitchell’s attorneys, Bruce Ringstrom Jr., said Wednesday the criminal complaint filed against the senator lacked key context.
“It fails to include exculpatory facts, such as how Senator Mitchell has a key to the residence in question; that she was only in possession of things that she actually owns; and that she was and is deeply concerned about the health and welfare of someone who has been a member of her family for 45 years,” Ringstrom said.
Mitchell weighed in further in a statement released by her attorneys Thursday afternoon. The statement did not address the newly released 911 transcript.
“It saddens me that some people are attempting to use a tragic family situation to score political points, and I am grateful to those who believe, as I always have, that everyone should be allowed the due process guaranteed in our Constitution,” Mitchell said in her statement. “I am confident that a much different picture will emerge when all of the facts are known. I am as committed to my constituents today as the day I was elected, including important work for veterans and children, and I do not intend to resign.”
Staff writer Rochelle Olson contributed to this report.
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