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APR 25 '00 02:28PM PETERSON BELL CONVERSE P.2/4 LAW OFF'(CP'S OF JENSEN, BELL, CONVERSE & ERICKSON, P.A. formerl)' PC!CI'1ion, Bell, Col1vers~ & J~nscn, P.A. Robert C. Ben Willard L. Converse Roger A. Jensen James C. Erickson*t ClII"ol A. Baldwin Caroline BelJ Beckman Charles R. Bartholdi Mitchell W. Converse Shari A. Jacobus 1500 Minnesota World Trade Center 30 East Seventh Street St. Paul. MN 55101 OfCounse) Kurt F. Walther Telephone (651) 223-4999 Facsimile (651) 223-4987 Apri1 25, 2000 Mr. Don Munson Codes Coordinator City of RosevilIe 2660 Ciyic Center Driye Roseville, MN 55113 RE: Administrative Searches and Trespassing Our File: 1011.3 Dear Don: . -'Ai you are certainly aware, your positir)n as Code Enforcement Officer ftequently requires you to enter onto p~;:vate property for the purpose of investigating and documenting code violations. In the course of performing this aspect of your position, you may occasionally be advised by a property owner that you are trespassing by being on their property. This is not the case. A person must be asked to leave the property and refuse to do so before there is a trespass. There are two additional types of trespasses, which occur when a person returns to the property of another after having previously been told to 1eave the property and not return. If the person returns with the intent to abuse, disturb, or cause distress in another o( threaten another, there is no time limit on the order to not return. If the person merely returns to the property of another after having been told not to return, the order not to return is only effectiye for 30 days. Thus, you are not trespassing by entering onto another's property, unless you have been asked to leave and you refuse to do so. Even in the instance where you have been asked to lcaye and not return, you may in fact return after the passage of 30 days. .I have omitted addressing the trespass in a dwelling Jaw, as I know that no one trom your Department wculd enter a person's dwelling without receiving pemrission. There are several other trespass laws, such as trespass motivated by bias, that I have not discussed, as they will not come into play in the course of your duties. -, In most cases you are able to enter private property without being requested to 1eayc the property by the owner, and eyen in this rare instance, you .are often able to view the property in question using some other manner, such as from a public street or nearby property. However, occasionally these aUematives are not ava1!able and you must get access to the property to verify and/or docuOleut the code violation existing on the property. When this is required, a search warrant must be obtained. "Also Admitted in Wisconsin tCivil Trial Specialist, ('.ertified by the Civil Litigation Section of Ole Minnesot:t State Bar A5$ociation.