I don’t care about the trespassing claim, but since this IS california, he shouldn’t be hiding behind anything at all. Further, it IS not legal for a cop to issue a ticket from private property, period. No tickets in shopping centers, no police reports for car wrecks in parking lots, Etc.
I do believe that a judge would find someone’s driveway to be private, no matter what constitutes as a “right-of-way” in the city(of course this will depend on the judge, the cop, the city, Etc.). If the judge wasn’t involved, and it was just a complaint sent in to the station, the ociffer would definitely be slapped on the hand for doing it, simply because of the trouble it could cause.
I also doubt that a simple call into the station would land your friend on “the list”. Now, questioning their authority and in a court of law, questioning their right of search and seizure will get you on it for sure(ask me about being on the list sometime :)).
-Sam