A somewhat uneventful 2024 legislative session was thrown into disarray last week when a Democratic-Farmer-Labor state senator was charged with felony burglary after allegedly breaking into her stepmother’s northern Minnesota home.

The arrest and charges against Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, have been disruptive in the Senate, where her party controls a one-seat majority over Republicans. Already, votes have been delayed in the Senate, as without Mitchell’s presence, partisan legislation likely would fail in 33-33 tie votes.

With a felony charge looming and a Senate ethics complaint hearing scheduled for May 7, Mitchell has said she won’t resign. Her fellow Democrats say their colleague shouldn’t be ousted based on a charge and limited facts.

Republicans, on the other hand, want an expedited investigation into the senator, and are calling for her to resign. They say she’s violated public trust and accuse her of changing her story about the incident.

Here’s what we know:

Alleged break-in

It’s still not clear exactly what happened in the lead-up to Mitchell’s April 22 arrest in Detroit Lakes. But charges filed against the senator say police found her in her stepmother’s basement after receiving a 911 call about a burglary around 4:45 a.m.

Mitchell told police she had gotten into the home through a basement window, according to the charges, which said she was dressed in all black and told police she knew she “did something bad.”

She told police she had driven more than 200 miles from the Twin Cities that morning and was trying to retrieve her late father’s ashes and other items of sentimental value, charges said. It was difficult to retrieve items because her stepmother had stopped communicating with her, Mitchell allegedly told officers.

Police later found a laptop belonging to the stepmother in Mitchell’s bag, though in a statement posted to social media, Mitchell denied she was in the house to steal. In that same statement, she claimed she was checking on her stepmother and made no mention of the ashes.

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