Becker County Attorney Brian W. McDonald objects to state Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s motion to delay the start of her trial until after the legislative session ends in the late spring, according to a court filing.

Mitchell’s jury trial is scheduled to start in just two weeks.

Senator Mitchell was charged with burglary after allegedly breaking into her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home last April. Michell pleaded not guilty to the felony charge.

In a motion filed on Friday in Becker County District Court, Mitchell’s defense attorney asked the judge presiding over the case to delay the trial until “the first available date after May 19, 2025,” the deadline for lawmakers to wrap up business at the Capitol.

The filing cited a 2007 appeals court case, which ruled that state law “authorizes the postponement of a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding in which a legislator is involved as a party, attorney, or witness while the legislature is in session.”

In a new filing, the Becker County attorney disagrees with a delay, saying “there were zero instances” of the statute being used to “delay a proceeding for the accused in a criminal proceeding.”

A Becker County judge will hear the arguments from both sides on the defense motion to continue the trial on Tuesday afternoon.

The judge will allow Sen. Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, to attend Tuesday’s hearing remotely after a request by the defense.

Tuesday is also the start of the new legislative session in St. Paul.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are monitoring the court case.

“We have a very peculiar situation,” Carleton College political analyst Steven Schier said. “When will the trial occur? What will the verdict be? How will that affect what the majority is in the state Senate? All to be determined.”

The Minnesota Senate is currently tied between the DFL and GOP at 33-33. A special election will soon be held for an open seat in a historically strong DFL district.