Convicted Mass State Police Sgt. Gary Cederquist sentenced to federal prison

Disgraced ex-Mass State Police Sgt Gary Cederquist who was convicted in the driver s license bribery scheme has been sentenced to several years in federal prison Cederquist the ringleader of the scheme was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison followed by two years of supervised release The -year-old South Shore man was also ordered to pay a fine and in restitution Cederquist back on May was unveiled guilty of counts in connection with the Commercial Driver s License bribery outrage He faced dozens of charges for falsifying records and giving passing scores to CDL applicants including people who failed or did not take the CDL skills test in exchange for bribes For virtually his entire tenure in MSP s CDL Unit Gary Cederquist was the ringleader organizer and principal perpetrator of a criminal enterprise the feds wrote in their sentencing memo He took bribes He extorted members of the populace And he falsified records Over and over again for years Cederquist s conduct jeopardized the safety of everyone on the roads and highways of Massachusetts and beyond every time he took a bribe in exchange for a free CDL falsified a figure sheet input fake scores into the RMV s computer system or forged a sponsor s signature on an application the feds added The U S Attorney s Office was seeking a sentence of nine years in prison while the federal judge went with six years Cederquist was ordered to summary to the Bureau of Prisons on Nov His attorney before sentencing had described the court that Cederquist acknowledged that what he did was a serious betrayal of general trust and an endangerment to constituents safety As a sergeant his base pay was close to For instance in his base pay was and his overtime pay was His annual pension amount this year has been Meanwhile he s employed as a regional sales rep for Frito-Lay according to his attorney The defendant acknowledges that a jail sentence is appropriate but is requesting that the Court consider a downward variance based upon the conduct which is a serious blemish on an otherwise respectable law enforcement career his attorney wrote Cederquist was in charge of MSP s CDL Unit which is responsible for administering CDL skills tests The CDL skills test is a demanding in-person test that consists of three segments Conveyance Inspection Basic Control Skills and the Road Test Between February and January Cederquist arranged for him and his co-conspirators to give passing scores to at least three dozen applicants regardless of whether or not they had in fact passed or in chosen cases had even taken the CDL skills test including in particular instances in exchange for bribes Cederquist and his co-conspirators used the code word golden handshake or golden to identify applicants who received special medication and were to be given passing scores on their skills tests regardless of performance In text message conversations Cederquist and his co-conspirators described a number of golden applicants as performing poorly on their skills tests However all of the applicants received passing scores Cederquist also conspired with his friend who worked for a water company that employed drivers who needed CDLs to give passing scores to certain applicants affiliated with the water company Related Articles Massachusetts man who went to the Golden Banana strip club before driving drunk loses appeal Convicted Mass State Police Sgt Gary Cederquist s sentencing delayed as his attorney defends murder suspect Mass State Police briefs Street racing crackdown truck company blitz Massachusetts State Police make big fentanyl and cocaine bust arrest people to disrupt a narcotics operation Massachusetts driving school manager convicted in Mass State Police bribery embarrassment is sentenced to prison In exchange for the passing scores Cederquist accepted bribes of free inventory from the water company such as cases of bottled Fiji VOSS and Essentia water cases of bottled Arizona Iced Tea coffee and tea products and boxes of Twizzlers and Swedish Fish Cederquist accepted a variety of bribes including inventory from the water company valued in the thousands of dollars a granite post and mailbox a new driveway valued at over and a snowblower valued at nearly Cederquist described one such applicant as horrible and brain dead but gave him a passing count anyway in exchange for the snowblower