Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2012 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2012 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Peter Small POLICE CORRUPTION TRIAL: JUDGE URGED TO HELP REMOVE DIRTY COP LABEL WITH LIGHT SENTENCE A lawyer is urging the Crown to give five former drug squad officers convicted of attempting to obstruct justice non-jail sentences to show the world they are not the dirty cops so often portrayed. The jury that convicted them last June made no finding they stole money or drugs, or committed sexual assault or, significantly, were involved in an overarching conspiracy - as has been alleged, said Earl Levy, lawyer for former detective constable Raymond Pollard. Yet somehow they have been stigmatized as responsible for the largest police corruption case in Canadian history, he said. It was not until eight years after they were charged that a jury rejected this characterization, Levy told Ontario Superior Court Justice Gladys Pardu on Wednesday. "I am going to suggest your honour can remove some of that stigma by imposing a non-custodial sentence to tell the world that these defendants were not a rogue squad," he said. In June, a jury convicted Pollard, 48, Ned Maodus, 49, Joseph Miched, 54, Steven Correia, 45, and their former boss, John Schertzer, 54, of attempting to obstruct justice for covering up a warrantless search. Pollard, Maodus and Correia were also convicted of perjury for falsely testifying about the search at a preliminary hearing for two heroin dealers. The Crown has asked Pardu to give four years in jail to Schertzer, the former detective sergeant who led the elite Central Field Command Team 3 drug squad, and give three years for his four former crew members. Patrick Ducharme, Maodus's lawyer, said his client suffers from police work-related post traumatic stress disorder and severe depression, exacerbated by this investigation. He has been in therapy for a decade. "A private and reserved individual, he trusts virtually no one," Ducharme said. "His world is small." Ducharme urged Pardu to impose a suspended sentence for his long- suffering client. Peter Brauti, Miched's lawyer, asked for the same sentence for the veteran officer who resigned from the force because of the investigation. Now a car salesman, he would likely lose his licence to sell if imprisoned, Brauti said. Once a rising star, Miched was sent to do a job he hated at a Scarborough collision reporting centre once under investigation, Brauti said. "Having the last four years of your career ruined is not insignificant," he added. The officers have been treated as "human pinatas," with lies leaked to the media to discredit them, Brauti said. But prosecutor Milan Rupic said the inherent stresses of being charged and tried for a crime do not warrant special consideration. The hearing continues Thursday.