Now that the disgraced former Mass State Police sergeant who cooked up the motive force’s license bribery scheme was sentenced to federal jail, will he lose his $100,000-plus pension?
Herald readers have been flooding our inbox with this query after Gary Cederquist was sentenced to 6 years behind bars earlier this week.
The 60-year-old South Shore man — the “ringleader” of the MSP Industrial Driver’s License bribery scandal who was discovered responsible of 48 counts — takes house an annual pension of $106,584.
The Herald this week reached out to the Massachusetts State Treasurer’s Workplace to test on the standing of Cederquist’s pension after his sentencing for falsifying data and giving passing scores to CDL candidates, together with individuals who failed or didn’t take the CDL abilities check, in trade for bribes.
The Massachusetts State Retirement Board can take up the matter after the retiree has realized their punishment.
“Now that Gary Cederquist has been sentenced, the Board will take up his matter at an upcoming meeting,” a spokesperson for the Treasurer’s Workplace stated in a press release.
As soon as the matter is on the agenda, the board considers what motion to take, and greater than probably will vote that the matter goes to a listening to officer.
Then the listening to officer conducts a listening to — the place proof is offered about “whether the person’s conduct has a legal or factual link to their job,” the spokesperson beforehand stated concerning the course of.
“The hearing officer prepares a recommendation and presents it to the Board,” the spokesperson added. “The person has the opportunity to be present during the Board meeting and have their attorney present. Assuming the hearing officer finds that there was a legal and/or factual link, the Board will vote on the whether the member’s pension is forfeited or not.”
Cederquist was in command of MSP’s CDL Unit, which is chargeable for administering CDL abilities exams. The CDL abilities check is a demanding, in-person check that consists of three segments: Car Inspection; Fundamental Management Expertise; and the Highway Check.
Between February 2019 and January 2023, Cederquist organized for him and his co-conspirators to present passing scores to at the very least three dozen candidates no matter whether or not or not they’d truly handed or, in some circumstances, had even taken the CDL abilities check — together with in some situations in trade for bribes.
Along with Cederquist, former MSP Troopers Calvin Butner and Perry Mendes have been convicted within the bribery scheme. They each pleaded responsible, and Butner was sentenced to 3 months in jail whereas Mendes was sentenced to at least one month in jail.
“The Board has referred the matters of Calvin Butner and Perry Mendes to a Hearing Officer to make findings of fact and recommendations regarding whether their pensions should be forfeited under G.L. c. 32, § 15,” the Treasurer’s Workplace spokesperson stated.
Butner’s annual pension is $72,237, and Mendes’ pension is $86,765.
Ex-Trooper Joel Rogers was additionally charged in scheme. He was not convicted, and he entered right into a deferred prosecution settlement with the feds.
“The status for Joel Rogers remains the same – no further action will be taken by the Board unless his deferred prosecution agreement is cancelled,” the spokesperson stated.
Rogers’ yearly pension is $77,829.
Cederquist and his co-conspirators used the code phrase “golden handshake” or “golden” to determine candidates who obtained particular remedy, and have been to be given passing scores on their abilities exams no matter efficiency.
In textual content message conversations, Cederquist and his co-conspirators described quite a few “golden” candidates as performing poorly on their abilities exams. Nevertheless, the entire candidates obtained passing scores.
Cederquist additionally conspired along with his buddy who labored for a water firm that employed drivers who wanted CDLs, to present passing scores to sure candidates affiliated with the water firm.
In trade for the passing scores, Cederquist accepted bribes of free stock from the water firm, resembling circumstances of bottled Fiji, VOSS and Essentia water, circumstances of bottled Arizona Iced Tea, espresso and tea merchandise, and packing containers of Twizzlers and Swedish Fish.
Cederquist accepted quite a lot of bribes together with stock from the water firm valued within the hundreds of {dollars}; a $750 granite put up and mailbox; a brand new driveway valued at over $10,000; and a snowblower valued at practically $2,000. Cederquist described one such applicant as “horrible,” and “brain dead,” however gave him a passing rating anyway in trade for the snowblower.
