The former boss of an elite Toronto drug squad who has an “exemplary” service record should be spared jail despite being convicted of attempting to obstruct justice, his lawyer says.

Retired Det.-Sgt. John Schertzer and four former subordinates were found guilty of doctoring their notes to cover up their 1998 search of a heroin dealer’s apartment before they had obtained a warrant.

For Schertzer, it was “a one-off transgression in an otherwise exemplary career,” Alan Gold told Ontario Superior Court Justice Gladys Pardu at the five defendants’ sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Gold said prison would expose Schertzer, 54, to harm from gang-affiliated inmates. The lawyer suggested a discharge or suspended sentence. Any jail time, if imposed, should be short, he added.

Schertzer headed the elite Team 3 of the Central Field Command drug squad in the late 1990s, which laid hundreds of charges but was the focus of complaints about thefts and assaults.

In June, a jury convicted Schertzer and Steven Correia, 45; Ned Maodus, 49; Joseph Miched, 54; and Raymond Pollard, 48, of attempting to obstruct justice.

Correia, Pollard and Maodus were also found guilty of perjury.

The officers were acquitted of other charges, including extortion, theft and assault.

The Crown has asked Pardu to sentence Schertzer to four years, and the others three.

Gold listed several mitigating factors for Schertzer. He has become primary caregiver for his two daughters, 14 and 16, while running a restaurant with more than 12 employees, Gold said.

“Innocent bystanders” like his wife, homicide Det. Joyce Schertzer, have been sideswiped, Gold said. He quoted from her letter filed in court: “I was considered collateral damage.”

Correia’s lawyer, Harry Black, argued his client — the only offender still a police officer — would lose his $90,000 a year job if sentenced to even one day in prison.

To jail Correia for three years, as the Crown wants, would be “cruel and utterly uncalled for and utterly without precedent in this country,” Black said. He called for a suspended sentence with community service.

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The “punishment already endured” by the 26-year police veteran must be considered, Black argued. He has borne stigma, brutal media attention and punitive release terms since the early 2000s, Black said.

Sentencing continues Wednesday.