SAXONBURG — A Penn Township man accused of running a marijuana growing operation in his home will stand trial.

Clint N. Jensen, 32, was ordered held for court following a preliminary hearing Wednesday before District Judge Sue Haggerty.

Just before the hearing, Jensen’s live-in fiance, Erica R. Lojak, 25, waived her right to a hearing on charges she faces in the same case.

The illegal grow-op at the couple’s Old Route 8 home, where they live with their 2-year-old son, was discovered Oct. 5 thanks to a utility workers’s nose, said Middlesex Township police Sgt. Randy Ruediger.

The accidental witness, Ruediger testified at the hearing, began getting a headache he believed was due to an odor coming from the basement of the defendant’s house.

The worker used his cell phone to take what proved to be an incriminating photograph of the home’s basement. The photo, which was shared with police, showed what appeared to be a marijuana plant, Ruediger said.

Police from Middlesex and Penn townships, which have a mutual aid agreement, on Oct. 7 got a search warrant for the house. Once inside, it didn’t take long for their suspicions to be realized.

“It smelled like fresh growing marijuana,” the officer testified.

The grow house, it turned out, was a sophisticated operation, Ruediger said, hidden behind a locked door and wall in the basement.

“We found wiring, transformers, temperature controllers, digital monitoring devices, timers, containers, seeds, ventilation equipment,” Ruediger said.

Even a journal used to record and chart the progress of individual plants was found, he added.

The search soon turned up 23 plants, both mature ones and seedlings. Some of the fully grown plants measured 4 feet tall, police reported.

Officers, meanwhile, also looked through Lojak’s vehicle and turned up a marijuana pipe and stun gun-type device, police said.

Jensen, who was not at home during the search, later voluntarily went to the police station to talk with investigators, Ruediger said.

“He took all responsibility (for the operation),” the officer testified, “and said his fiance/girlfriend had nothing to do with it.”

Jensen told police that he learned about growing marijuana from reading information posted on the Internet. His occupational experience, too, was a help.

“He’s an electrician by trade,” Ruediger testified.

Jensen is charged with manufacturing a controlled substance and possessing a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.

Lojak is charged with possessing a drug paraphernalia and a prohibited offensive weapon.

Additionally, both defendants, who are free on their recognizance, are charged with endangering their child by keeping him in the house containing marijuana.

On cross-examination by Jensen’s attorney, Patrick Lawlor of Pittsburgh, Ruediger said he filed the child endangerment charge because marijuana spores can get into the air and cause respiratory problems.

The officer acknowledged to Lawlor that he did not know if the defendants’ son had ever been in the home’s basement, nor did he know if any tests of the home’s air quality proved dangerous to children.