Court of Appeals sends request to release police video of Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s arrest back to District Court

The Minnesota Court of Appeals asked a District Court on Monday to reconsider its ruling to block the public release of police bodycam footage in the burglary arrest of state Sen. Nicole Mitchell.

Conservative website Alpha News asked a Becker County judge to release the police and dashcam video from the arrest of Mitchell, a DFL senator from Woodbury, arguing the public had the right to see it given the high-profile nature of the case.

Under the state’s Data Practices Act, bodycam video from active criminal investigations is generally confidential or protected nonpublic data, but a court can order it released if “the benefit ... to the public outweighs any harm to the public, to the agency or to the person identified in the data.”

Last summer, Judge Gretchen Thilmony ruled that Mitchell’s rights as a defendant in “an active criminal proceeding outweigh the public’s interest in seeing the body-cam footage.”

She said circumventing criminal proceedings is an “extraordinary measure that the legislature has plainly prohibited in all but the most important circumstances.”

But a three-judge Appeals Court panel ruled Monday that they “cannot discern whether the district court properly construed the meaning of the phrase ‘benefit . . . to the public,‘” reversing the lower court’s decision and asking them to reconsider Alpha News’ request.

A spokesman for the DFL Senate caucus did not immediately return a request for comment.

Senate GOP Leader Mark Johnson of East Grand Forks said the Republican caucus had hoped the Appeals Court would order that the bodycam footage be released.

“Hopefully soon we’ll be able to see some footage from that so that Minnesotans ... will be able to know what happened that night and whether they can put their trust in that member as Sen. Mitchell still sits on the floor and casts a lot of determining votes in committee and on the floor.”

Mitchell is charged with two felonies — first-degree burglary and possession of burglary or theft tools — in connection to the alleged break-in at the Detroit Lakes home her father shared with her stepmother. Mitchell has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Republicans in the Senate have sought to expel Mitchell over the charges. The caucus filed ethics complaints concerning the original charges and Mitchell’s vote in January on a motion connected to a GOP effort to expel her.

The effort to expel Mitchell over her vote failed to gain traction last month in the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct.

Her case was originally scheduled to go to trial in January, but Mitchell’s lawyers pointed to a state law that says sitting legislators cannot be required to attend court proceedings during a legislative session. The legislative session is scheduled to adjourn on May 19 but work could stretch later into the summer if lawmakers don’t strike a deal on a two-year budget plan.

Briana Bierschbach of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.