Crown prosecutors are appealing territorial Judge Karen Ruddy's exclusion of evidence in the trial over several marijuana grow operations found around Whitehorse in 2005.

Noel Sinclair, one of two Crown prosecutors on the case, said this morning the appeal was filed in Yukon Supreme Court on Wednesday.

It focuses on the quashing of a search warrant used at 16 Sitka Cres. as well as other grounds related to the exclusion of other evidence in the case, Sinclair told the Star.

Min Jiang, Kiu Yeung, Wei Wen and Jian Zhou are all named in the appeal.

When the case was heard in territorial court earlier this spring, Crown prosecutors opted not to call evidence against the four men who were each charged with six counts of producing marijuana, six counts of possession of marijuana and six counts of stealing electricity. Wen was also charged with possession of property obtained by crime.

The trial for the four men, along with another four, began last October. Submissions were brought forward in a voir dire over a number of Charter of Rights and Freedoms breaches defence lawyers alleged.

A voir dire is a trial within a trial to determine what evidence will be admitted in the case.

Earlier this year, Ruddy excluded the warrant for 16 Sitka Cres., where Jiang and Zhou were arrested.

In her decision, she determined parts of the Information to Obtain a warrant had to be taken out for a variety of reasons.

'What we are left with is little more than some indicators which raise suspicions about whether there is normal usage of the property and some potential links between the property and other drug investigations in B.C. and the Yukon,' she wrote in the decision.

The appeal also challenges Ruddy's decision to leave out evidence found in a vehicle stop by police outside 208 Falcon Dr., Sinclair said.

Wen was stopped after he was seen leaving the residence. The search of the green Camry that Wen had been driving found a bag containing $11,400.

Ruddy ruled the arrest of Wen was unlawful as police did not have reasonable grounds to believe Wen had committed the acts of production of marijuana and theft of electricity, which he was arrested for. The stop of the vehicle was not justified, she ruled.

Also at issue in the appeal is Ruddy's exclusion fingerprints taken prior to charges being laid.

Sinclair noted the Crown wants the court of appeal to take another look at the exclusion of evidence in the case. The circumstances are serious and the consequences of the ruling are also of significance, he said.

'We wouldn't be launching this appeal if we didn't think there was merit to the arguments we made,' he said, adding it's in the public's interest to seek a review of the ruling.

Lawyers for the four men named in the appeal could not be reached for comment this morning.

More than 4,600 marijuana plants were seized during the eight-day search of the suspected grow-operations in 2005.

When the trial got underway in October 2006, Zhu Liang pleaded guilty to one count of producing marijuana, one count of stealing more than $5,000 in electricity and another count of possession of cocaine. He was sentenced to one year in jail.

When the case resumed earlier this month following Ruddy's ruling, Guang Zhu and Kwok Cheung pleaded guilty to producing marijuana.

Zhu was sentenced to six months less a day, to be followed by 18 months' probation, while Cheung is serving a one-year term.

Wei Zhai, meanwhile, is having his case waived to B.C.