No privacy rights in tent blocking Hollywood sidewalk, court rules

A man busted for selling drugs out of a sidewalk tent near Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood can't shelter behind the Fourth Amendment's privacy shield, a state appellate panel ruled.

As constitutionally protected property rights clash with public safety concerns in court cases involving homeless camps, Wednesday's opinion added a twist: The occupant of a structure that illegally obstructs a public walkway does not have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy. As a result, police don't need a warrant to conduct a search.

So, a trial judge correctly rejected defendant Sheridan Maki's motion to suppress the evidence collected in the warrantless search of his tent, ruled the 2d District Court of Appeal's Division 6. Officers found scales, methamphetamine, other currency plus $40 that an informant had just handed Maki in exchange for drugs.

The unpublished opinion affirmed Maki's 364-day jail sentence and two-year probation. People v. Maki, B339358 (2d DCA, op. filed Oct. 15, 2025).

The panel did the homeless a favor by not issuing a published opinion and setting statewide precedent, said Philip C. Dubé, a retired Los Angeles County deputy public defender who currently works as a legal analyst and volunteers at the Inner City Law Center. 

"Mr. Maki is out of luck, but the decision is not binding. A published opinion would have been the death knell for the homeless for Fourth Amendment purposes," he said.

It is possible that prosecutors or public interest groups will ask the court to publish the opinion to make crackdowns on sidewalk obstructions easier. "The court may also have been sending a message to defense attorneys not to appeal these cases," Dubé added.

Maki's tent, made of wood, cinder blocks and tarps, was 10 to 15 feet long and five to six feet wide. It blocked all but two or three feet of the sidewalk in front of a large building complex that included a movie theater and a gym. Police surveillance established that Maki was the sole occupant. After their informant made the drug buy, they ordered Maki out and arrested him. Then they entered the tent and seized items relevant to criminal activity, the opinion recounted.

The Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 41.18(a) forbids obstructing a sidewalk within five feet of building entrances, but enforcement has varied as legal opinions have developed. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 Grants Pass ruling gave cities more power to enforce public camping bans.

At Maki's trial, a police detective testified to municipal equivocation at street level. "L.A. has gone back and forth, so they came up with all these [Code] sections to come up with a temporary moratorium. ... They go and ask them to remove the encampment, but a lot of times they don't. So, we got to warn them. You're supposed to give 24- or 48-hours' notice to remove it, or else they'll come through and clean it. Then they got backlashed for that, so it's been an ongoing issue with the city of L.A."

Justice Hernaldo J. Baltodano concluded that while Maki may have had a subjective expectation of privacy in his enclosed tent, he could not show that his belief was objectively reasonable because the tent was illegally erected and sited in violation of the Municipal Code. Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert and Justice Tari L. Cody concurred.

Bina Ahmad, an associate at Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP, who was appointed to defend Maki by the Court of Appeal, did not return messages seeking comment. Nor did prosecutors at the state attorney general's office.