Disorderly House, cedar rapids Iowa

[DTWinckler]

I live in Cedar Rapids Iowa and last Saturday I had some good friends over, we ended up getting some alcohol and started to have a small party (me and maybe 6 other people) I'll state now that we all are underage. At the beginning of the night my friend clogged up the toilet when he used it, we figured it was no big deal because it wasn't overflowing at the time, so we wouldn't use it.

After a couple hours we all decide to go to bed (around 1am-2am). I wake up to the news that a cop and firefighters are in our apartment because the toilet that backed up was overflowing and leaking into the apartment below us. He said that he knocked on our door repeatedly and that they were going to break the door down, but it was unlocked. He walked in and woke my friend on the couch up by hitting him, then proceeded to harass (In my opinion) my friends by saying something along the lines of 'wake up retards!'. The name calling continued throughout the time he was there, even my neighbor thought he was going overboard with the name calling and she's the one that called them. He then wrote me a ticket for disorderly house and that we were having an underage drinking party. Considering we were not drinking at the time, and we were sleeping even, I don't believe that I was running a disorderly house, but I'm no lawyer. The officer did ask me if I had been drinking and I told him yes I have been. I figured if I lied to him I'd be in more trouble.

I was very cooperative with the officer the entire time and if I recall correctly the name calling kept going on.

I'm wondering if we can get these charges dropped because he walked into our apartment without consent or a warrant and verbally harassed my friends. I know I'll need a lawyer if I plan on pleading not guilty but I am curious if it will even be worth it to hire a lawyer.

I hear the fine can get up to $750.00 and I would not enjoy loosing the case with a lawyer and end up paying the fine plus the cost of the lawyer.

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

[Some Random Guy]

Your apartment was leaking water into the downstairs unit. The landlord invited the police over and then the landlord had the police open the door for him due the emergency of an ongoing water leak damaging the landlord's property. Once the door was open, your passed out drunken underage friends were in plain sight of the officer. He was perfectly within his rights to wake up the drunks to find out what was going on with the water damage.

The "disorderly house" charge is a city law. I have been unable to find the exact text for Cedar Rapids, but many cities in Iowa have similar statutes regarding allowing your house to be used for 'immoral' purposes. To see whether permitting underage drinking at your house qualifies, stop by your local library and ask where the city statutes are kept.

If you don't like the insults from the police, then you may file a complaint with his supervisor. This will have no bearing on your case.

Or, if you really don't like being insulted by the police, try not to cause thousands of dollars in damage due to your illegal activities.

 

[DTWinckler]

The landlord was not involved at all, the only person who works for the apartment was the maintenance guy and he didn't get there until after my friends and I were woken up.

 

[dave33]

It sounds like the police gained entry legally. They didn't know if someone had a heart attack in the shower or what. In certain situations such as fire, flooding,etc... they can enter siting safety reasons. The verbal harassment would have nothing to do with the ticket, therefor even if it was determined that he did indeed harass you that would have no relevance to the ticket. As far as getting the ticket dismissed,you would have to look up that particular statute and make a determination. Since it is unlikely you are going to change over night perhaps you could ask your neighbors to not call the police. Very rarely do you get the desired result. All that was accomplished here was to make your night even more miserable and cost you some money.

 

[DTWinckler]

Alright, well thanks for the advice, I guess my room mate and I just have to man up and accept responsibility, and our neighbors have parties as well, neither of us have a problem with each other's partying. She just tried to call emergency maintenance and they didn't answer, so she didn't know who to call, I don't blame her.

But again, thanks for help, I'll probably post up what happened at court