Star Tribune
Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s court hearing pushed back as she challenges arrest on burglary charge
DFL state Sen. Nicole Mitchell has challenged the grounds for her April arrest on a first-degree burglary charge and her scheduled Monday hearing was postponed a week.
In a Becker County District Court filing by her defense attorneys, Mitchell seeks to dismiss the charge against her on the grounds that she didn’t commit a crime while inside the Detroit Lakes home of her father’s widow, identified only as C.M. in court documents.
The hearing was rescheduled for 10 a.m. on July 9, but that will likely change because the prosecution has filed to remove Judge Douglas Clark from the case.
In advance of the hearing, Mitchell’s attorneys, Dane DeKrey and Bruce Ringstrom, Jr., asked investigators for a forensic analysis of the computer that the alleged victim claims was stolen April 22. The request seeks to determine if and when the computer was connected to a Woodbury internet provider address before Mitchell’s arrest.
Mitchell, a freshman DFL senator, lives in and represents Woodbury.
Her attorneys also are seeking all of the alleged victim’s medical records pertaining to dementia-related conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Mitchell’s attorneys said in the filing that they need the additional information to challenge the charge against her.
The senator’s arrest shocked colleagues and created disruptive tension through the end of the 2024 legislative session. Mitchell returned to the Senate floor a week after her arrest and GOP senators have filed an ethics complaint against her that is still pending.
When she was arrested, Mitchell was dressed in black and admitted to entering her stepmother’s house through a sliding basement window, the criminal complaint said. A backpack containing a laptop was wedged in the open basement window.
In a phone interview Monday, DeKray said, “We believe there will be evidence that shows she was in possession of this computer long before the night of this incident.”
In other action on the case, Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald filed a motion Monday to remove Clark. McDonald wasn’t required to provide a reason. Each side in a case is given one opportunity to remove a judge.
Clark was reprimanded in April by the state Board on Judicial Standards. Among other things, the board found that Clark’s “aggressive demeanor” has caused attorneys to regularly remove him from hearing their cases. The board said Clark raised his voice, failed to remain impartial and inappropriately interrupted witnesses in court.
Two people from Minnetonka were killed late Friday afternoon when their GMC Suburban ran a stop sign and was struck by a GMC Yukon headed north on Hwy. 169 west of Palisade, Minn.
According to the State Patrol, Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, and Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, were dead at the scene. The driver of the Suburban, a 61-year-old Minnetonka man, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Suburban, pulling a trailer, was headed east on Grove Street/County Rd. 3 at about 5:15 p.m. when it failed to stop at Hwy. 169 and was struck by the northbound Yukon. The Yukon then struck two westbound vehicles stopped at the intersection.
Four people from Zimmerman, Minn., in the Yukon, including the driver, were taken to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, while two passengers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Three girls in the Yukon ranged in age from 11 to 15.
The drivers of the two vehicles struck by the Yukon were not injured, the State Patrol said. Road conditions were dry at the time of the accident, and alcohol was not believed to have been a factor. All involved in the accident were wearing a seat belt except for Elizabeth Baldwin.
Hill City police and the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
