Wilmarth

An information charging defendant with cultivation of marijuana (Health & Saf. Code, § 11358) was dismissed following an order of the trial court suppressing evidence of 515 growing marijuana plants (Pen. Code, § 1538.5, subd. (j)) and a finding that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the prosecution (Pen. Code, § 1385). The People appeal. The issue concerns the extent of the privacy interest of the locator of an unpatented mining claim in the surface area of the property on which his claim resides. We shall reverse.

A Siskiyou County Sheriff’s officer received information that marijuana was growing in the area of defendant’s mining claim. He contacted the United States Forest Service which identified the claim site as public land. Special Agent Robert Dimmick, a forest service criminal investigator, accompanied sheriff’s officers to the claim site. At the entrance to the driveway leading to defendant’s residence there was a “No Trespassing” sign. As the officers drove up the driveway adjacent to defendant’s house, they observed a marijuana plant growing in a pot on the front lawn. They followed a black plastic irrigation pipe down the road and, 60 to 80…