Nuisance Party Ticket

I'm a student in Michigan and recently we were given two nuisance party tickets. I'm wondering what we can do to either get rid of or reduce the charge. Also, what is the worst that can possibly come out of the ticket?

Here are the details as best as I can replay them.

My roommates and myself live in a fairly residential part of town (although there are several students around us). We were having a party in celebration of my roommates 21st birthday. We (the house and some friends who were staying with us) started drinking at around 7 playing some drinking games and what not. Let me note that I live in a house with 9 guys (9 rooms as well) and that we had approximately 10 or so guests planning to stay with us. By approximately 11 there had developed a decent crowd and the police arrived saying they had complaints of noise. We cleared the place out as best as we could and attempted to move the party to a student apartment complex. Upon leaving the officers notified us that if they were to return they were going to come in and clear the place out so it wouldn't take so long, which we said was fine.

After finally getting most of the people to leave, most of the roommates proceeded to the next party, myself included. Not more than 5 or 10 minutes after I left my roommates called (three of them were still there) and said the cops came back. One of my roommates was talking to them, and another came down. Upon coming down they asked for the 2nd roommates ID and he went upstairs and got it. They proceeded to hand out nuisance party tickets, despite the fact that there were only 10 people at most in the house. The music had been off since they first showed up. To me this does not constitute a nuisance party. Furthermore, there were no minors in possession. Can they really call this anything more than a noise violation, and if so, how can they consider it a noise violation when they came back if everyone was gone?

At any rate I'm sure that there is something that can be done, so any advice would be appreciated. Sorry for making it so longwinded but I figure the more details the better.

Thanks,

Justin

I'm not going to explain to you why you got the ticket, as I am sure you know why. It does not matter how few people were there, you can recieve a nuisance party citation once every half hour after getting the first if an officer feels you are not complying with the rules. When you are at court you can ask for a reduction in your fine, but don't expect to recieve one. You may be put on a payment plan, which is a far more likely scenario. If you have never been in trouble before, a judge will most likely file your charges(although you weren't arrested, the Party Nuisance Ordinance is considered a misdemeanor). After one year, if you stay out of trouble, it will be 'erased' from your record.