CHICORA — The owner of a Center Township house where state police said they found evidence of a marijuana grow operation — including 87 marijuana plants — will stand trial on felony and misdemeanor drug charges.

District Judge Lewis Stoughton at a preliminary hearing ordered Richard A. Lynch, 58, held for court on manufacture or possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.

But Lynch's attorney, Stephen Misko, claimed his client did not live at the home on Tuck Lane at the time the plants and other alleged evidence — more than a pound of hallucinogenic mushrooms, growing equipment and an assortment of contraband — was found during a search.

The home's suspected tenant, 23-year-old Devan M. Green, is facing similar charges as Lynch. Green's preliminary hearing is pending.

Lynch is free on his own recognizance and Green is free on $30,000 bail.

An unrelated investigation apparently led police May 15 to the home on Tuck Lane. Sims said that another trooper had been pursuing a man in a reportedly stolen vehicle.

The man subsequently fled the vehicle and was seen running behind the house. The pursuing trooper, police said, believed that the suspect could have entered the house.

Green, who was not the suspect in the pursuit, came out of the door when police got there. He told them there was no one else inside.

“He said that he's renting the property from Mr. Lynch,” Sims testified.

Police asked to search the house, and Green allegedly called Lynch. Sims said Lynch “gave permission to enter the residence.”

While searching for the suspect who fled police, troopers came upon a room in the basement that contained items they believed were indicative of a grow operation.

Police, in turn, obtained a search warrant for the house.

The items found during the warrant search, Sims said, included a dehumidifier, three plastic storage bins containing psilocybin mushrooms, 87 marijuana plants, a bag of processed mushrooms and a box of sandwich bags.

Also in the basement was a power inverter, two ballasts, three space heaters, a thermometer, a fan and 14 light fixtures and bulbs.

Upstairs in the living room, Sims said, police found three scales, four drug-smoking pipes, a marijuana grinder and utility bills addressed to the home with the defendant's name on them.

Sims testified that in one of the bedrooms they believed Lynch was using, police found “one bag of processed marijuana and two bags of mushrooms.”

Among the items found in Green's bedroom, Sims said, were four plastic bags of marijuana and six bags of mushrooms.

“Did Mr. Green indicate that Mr. Lynch was a resident of that location?” prosecutor David Beichner, a county assistant district attorney, asked Sims.

“Yes,” the trooper replied.

But on cross-examination, Misko asked Sims: “Do you know if (Lynch) was living at 106 Tuck Lane at the time of the (search)?”

“I do not recall at this time,” the trooper said.

“Do you know where Mr. Lynch was at the time you executed the search warrant?” Misko asked.

“I was told he was out of town,” Sims replied.

During questioning by Misko, the trooper said he did not know who purchased the drug-packaging materials or suspected grow-op equipment, and he could not say when he believed Lynch was last at the home.

“Do you have any evidence or information as to when this growing operation was initiated in the basement of this house?” Misko said.

“I do not,” Sims said.

Following testimony, Misko argued his case to Stoughton against the charges.

“There was only one person there,” he said, referring to Green. “Just because somebody owns a house doesn't necessarily make them culpable.”

He also said there was no evidence that his client knew what was in the basement.

“I just don't think that they have anything that ties Mr. Lynch to actually manufacturing or distribution of any of this stuff.”

Beichner, however, assured Stoughton that the prosecution had met its burden.

“You have someone else renting the house who identified the defendant as being a resident of that location,” he said. “You have indicia of residency in that location. You have drugs found within the bedroom identified as the defendant's bedroom.”

Stoughton, in agreeing to hold all charges for court, referred, in part, to when police asked Green if they could search the house.

“Green wouldn't say 'yes' or 'no,'” Stoughton said. “He called Mr. Lynch, which tells me that Mr. Lynch still maintained the house, ran the house, called the shots.”