Alcohol & Drugs: MIP, MIC, Intoxication MIP in WA State

[asper911]

Hi my name is Dave, Im 20, and from WA State.
Recently I received an MIP at my own home. Here are the circumstances:
I held an party at my own house and had lots of people, lots of noise. We have an noise ordinance law in our city so we had an officer stop by our house. Apparently we did not hear the officer, so the officer went around the side of our house and knocked on the sliding door/ window which is directly an entrance to my bedroom. That is when me and my roomate saw the officer and talked to the officer right outside my bedroom. We talked for awhile and exchaned informations. I was very respectful, truthful, and did admit to comsuming some alcohol. The officer responded by giving us both mip's. Now my question is, was it lawful for the officer to go around to the side of our house? The officer pretty much hat to go through our yard in order to get the sliding door. In addition, I do intend to plead not guilty since i figure i have nothing to loose but to fight it. This would be my second mip if convicted. Do I have a chance of fighting this case? Im shooting for some kind of a plea bargain with the DA.
Thanks,
Dave

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Hi Dave.. sorry to hear about your situation. I would think that using the fact that the officer went around to the side of your house as an argument of trespass or some other theory would be going about it in the wrong way. This is because he had to do so because your party was so loud that knocking on the front door was impractical! If you didn't get any other violations which you probably could have been charged with, then this may have been more lenient than could have been done -- remember, not only was the party too loud and which you could have received a summons, you also supplied alcohol to your partygoers, a more serious offense.

If you plea bargain then you would obviously enter a guilty plea later. You may wish to speak to the prosecutor before you appear before the judge and see what you can work out. I guess you can say that if you don't want to be caught for MIP, then you also don't want to draw attention to the fact that you are an MIP so lower the volume! Good luck...