BOSTON — Four Massachusetts State Police troopers – two current and two former – are among six arrested for participating in an alleged conspiracy scheme whereby the individuals took bribes in exchange for giving Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) to applicants who either failed or didn’t take the CDL skills test.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, from May 2019 to January 2023, 17 individuals received CDL licenses without passing or taking the skills exam. This was done in exchange for bribes including: a new driveway worth over $10,000, a snow blower, and a $750 granite post and mailbox.
The following individuals cited in the 74-count federal indictment were charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit extortion, three counts of extortion, six counts of honest services mail fraud, 31 counts of record falsification, 27 counts of making false statements, and one count of perjury: Gary Cederquist, 58, of Stoughton, Calvin Butner, 63, of Halifax, Perry Mendes, 63, of Wareham, Joel Rogers, 54, of Bridgewater, Scott Camara, 42, of Rehoboth, and Eric Mathison, 47, of Boston.
Butner and Mendes were arrested Monday in Florida. They are scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston at a future date. The other defendants were taken into custody Tuesday morning and made their first appearance in federal court in Boston at 2 p.m. that day.
The current – or former – indicted state troopers named in the indictment are: Cederquist, Butner, Mendes, and Rogers. All four were members of the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) CDL Unit, which is responsible for conducting skills tests for drivers. The two civilians cited in the indictment, Camara and Mathison, are reportedly friends of Cederquist.
According to the charging document, Sergeant Cederquist was in charge of CDL Unit, while Troopers Rogers, Mendes, and retired Troopers Butner were members.
The test scores provided by the MSP’s CDL Unit play a pivotal role in determining if applicants satisfy federal criteria for obtaining CDLs from the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV). Class A CDLs are mandatory for driving combination vehicles, such as tractor-trailers, while Class B CDLs are essential for operating heavy single vehicles, like box trucks and school buses. In Massachusetts, CDL pass rates were 48% in 2019, 44% in 2020, and 41% for both 2021 and 2022.
The indictment alleges that from around May 2019 to January 2023, Cederquist, Butner, Mendes, Rogers, and others, gave 17 CDL applicants a passing score on the skills exam regardless of performance, using the code word “golden” to denote the applicants that received this special treatment. The charging document includes the following texts, some sent by Cederquist and others by Butner, regarding some of these applicants:
- “Your buddy passed yesterday he owes you that’s an automatic Fail leaving the door open!!!”
- “This guys a mess. Lol. He owes u a prime rib 6inch. 4 compounds and no watch;”
- “Your buddy is a mess. He owes you big time. He will be fine though. Anything for you”
- “Golden mess. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣”
- “He’s a mess Class A truck 2psi loss with truck running truck cut our again while timing 🤣🤣🤣🤣”
- “Total mess this guy I think some time we should just do what we can but not golden.”
It’s also alleged that Cederquist gave preferential treatment to four state troopers who applied for Class A CDL licenses by falsely reporting that each trooper took and passed a Class A skills test.
“In reality, however, it is alleged that the Troopers did not pass the skills test and that they drove a vehicle which did not qualify as a Class A vehicle,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “It is alleged that Cederquist conspired with his friend Camara, who worked for a truck-driving school in Brockton, to accomplish this offense.
Cederquist is also alleged to have conspired with his friend Mathison, an employee of a spring water company that employed drivers in need of CDLs, by giving passing scores to three applicants from the water company who failed the skills test in exchange for bribes of free inventory from the company, including: cases of bottled Fiji, VOSS and Essentia water, cases of bottled Arizona Iced Tea, and coffee and tea products, all of which Mathison delivered to an office trailer at the CDL test site in Stoughton.
According to the indictment, Cederquist sent Mathison a text describing one of the applicants as “an idiot,” who had “no idea what he’s doing,” adding that he “should have failed about 10 times already.” Cederquist then allegedly texted Mathison saying that Mathison’s boss “owes big time.”
The indictment claims that Butner was involved in the conspiracy, notably by providing Mathison a key to the Stoughton yard for off-hours access to drop off the water company’s inventory. It further alleges that Mendes participated by accepting cases of Fiji and VOSS water from Mathison right after conducting an incomplete skills test for a new driver at the water company, with Mathison assisting in loading the water into Mendes’s cruiser. On one occasion, Mathison reportedly texted Cederquist the following while en route to the water company’s Bridgewater warehouse: “Was heading to Bridgewater seeing if you all need anything on return trip. Did you get a new key for the midnight express,” to which Cederquist replied, “Not yet but I need Voss and Italian toast espresso and some decaf for an old timer at the office.”
The charging document reveals that in addition to receiving free inventory from the water company through Mathison, Cederquist, used his position as the sergeant overseeing the state police’s CDL Unit, to allegedly receive various other bribes in exchange for favoring certain CDL applicants. These bribes included a new driveway worth over $10,000, a $750 granite post and mailbox, and a snow blower valued at nearly $2,000. The indictment notes that Cederquist once referred to an applicant as “horrible” and “brain dead,” yet still awarded a passing score in exchange for the snow blower.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, all of the CDL recipients identified as not qualified in the course of their investigation were reported to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.
The investigation is ongoing.
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It is becoming more difficult to trust those who are “supposed” to uphold the law. They have the authority to search, arrest, bring into custody, strip us of our rights. Im saddened and disgusted. How can we trust law enforcement?