Illegal Search?

What is the name of your state? PA

The police arrived at the party in response to a "noise violation." The party was taking place in a rear patio that is not visible from the front of the property. There is a gate, which was at the moment left unattended, and so the police took it upon themselves to enter the property, walk around the side path, and proceed to the backyard/patio area. At this point, I was issued an underage drinking citation (I am 20 years old). My question: did they have probable cause? They had spotted no one entering/leaving the party, and no one within the party was visible from the front entrance.

"My question: did they have probable cause?"
*** Yep. They were investigating a noise complaint. In addition, I assume that they could hear the noise and 'followed their ears' to the source.

What if they "followed" their ears all they way up to a third floor bedroom? This is a large property with a tall picket fence, a side parking lot on the other side of the fence, and a wrap-around pathway that must be taken to reach the rear of the house where there is a depressed patio situated 5 feet below ground level. No attempt to call the President of the fraternity house was made, the police hadn't seen anyone with a beer through the fence to establish probably cause, they simply took it upon themselves to trespass.
--------------------------------------------- ________________
| | | |
| | | |
| | patio | |
| | | house |
| >>>>>>/steps | |
| / ____|_________________| |
| ^ | |
|cars cars ^ | |
|cars cars cars ^ | house |
|cars cars cars ^ | |
| ^ |__________|door|______________________|
|---fence-------| ^|--|

cops route (^)

disregard the attempted drawing, the format apparently changes upon post submission

Let's see ... loud party ... frat house ... people coming and going that appear underage ... yeah, I'd say they had cause. And since they were there on business they were not "trespassing".

And you certainly make a lot of assumptions about what the police did or did not see.

When you go to court, make the argument of unlawful entry and see where that gets you. But, unless you live on the property, you likely don't have standing to even contest the presence of the officers. Not to mention the fact that if it was a party open to the general public - upon payment of a fee or not (and by the fact there was supposed to be someone manning the gate, I'd say that IS the case), and alcohol was being served, that would lakiely have given them authority to enter with permission or without. (At least it likely would in CA)

Get the checkbook out and pay the fine. Either that or spend a lot of money on attorney and hope the $1,000+ you pay him will be worth it.

Carl

The retainer will be at least $1500.

The police did not need probable cause to enter upon the property. The police arrived in response to a noise complaint, and were handling such complaint. Since there was no one to make contact with prior to entering the property (from your own admission, the gate was unmanned), they entered the property with the intent to contact a responsible person. The purpose of their entry was not to search the property or to look for violations of law (except maybe the noise source).

I guess you believe they should have stood in the street and screamed at the top of their lungs until someone appeared out front?