People v. Superior Court

Petitioner seeks a writ of mandate directed to respondent court requiring it to annul that portion of its action of July 30, 1969, which suppressed evidence in a criminal prosecution against the real party in interest (hereinafter referred to as the defendant). The petition is made pursuant to Penal Code section 1538.5 subdivision (o).

In the proceeding pending in the respondent court, the defendant is charged by information with a violation of section 11530 of the Health and Safety Code, possession of marijuana, a felony.

After reviewing the entire record, we have concluded that the respondent court’s action in granting defendant’s motion to suppress was correct and that the alternative writ of mandate heretofore issued should be discharged and the petition for peremptory writ of mandate should be denied.

On April 4, 1969, Officer Chenault of the Los Angeles Police Department was assigned to work in the vicinity of the Teenage Fair being conducted at the Hollywood Palladium. He was stationed on the top of a 23-story building at Sunset and Vine and was observing parking lots adjacent to the Palladium, one and one-half blocks away, through binoculars.

At approximately…