A former statie has been discovered responsible on dozens of counts within the Industrial Driver’s License bribery scheme, whereas the jury discovered the ex-sergeant not responsible on some counts.
Stoughton man Gary Cederquist, 59, was dealing with quite a few federal prices in reference to a conspiracy to falsify information and provides passing scores to sure Industrial Driver’s License candidates, together with individuals who failed or didn’t take the CDL expertise check, in trade for bribes.
A jury on Friday discovered him responsible of 48 counts, whereas the jury discovered him not responsible on 9 counts.
He was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to commit extortion, one depend of extortion, six counts of trustworthy companies mail fraud, three counts of conspiracy to falsify information, 19 counts of falsification of information, and 17 counts of false statements.
Cederquist was acquitted of 1 depend of conspiracy to commit extortion, two counts of extortion, three counts of falsification of information, and three counts of false statements.
“It is never a good day when a member of law enforcement is convicted of a crime, especially when it is a crime that compromises public safety,” U.S. Lawyer Leah Foley mentioned in an announcement. “Gary Cederquist selected bribery and extortion over his oath to guard the neighborhood which he was sworn to serve.
“His greed put the public at risk when he devised a scheme to issue commercial driver’s licenses to applicants who had never taken a real test to operate heavy commercial vehicles on the roads and highways of Massachusetts,” Foley added. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office has the utmost respect for law enforcement, but we will not stand idly by if they violate the law.”
Cederquist was answerable for MSP’s CDL Unit, which is accountable for administering CDL expertise exams. The CDL expertise check is a demanding, in-person check that consists of three segments: Car Inspection; Primary Management Expertise; and the Highway Check.
In Massachusetts, the go price was 48% in 2019, 44% in 2020, 41% in 2021 and 41% in 2022.
Between February 2019 and January 2023, Cederquist organized for him and his co-conspirators to provide passing scores to a minimum of three dozen candidates no matter whether or not or not they’d truly handed or, in some instances, had even taken the CDL expertise check — together with in some cases in trade for bribes.
Cederquist and his co-conspirators used the code phrase “golden handshake” or “golden” to establish candidates who acquired particular remedy, and have been to be given passing scores on their expertise exams no matter efficiency.
In textual content message conversations, Cederquist and his co-conspirators described numerous “golden” candidates as performing poorly on their expertise exams. Nonetheless, all the candidates acquired passing scores.
Cederquist additionally conspired along with his pal who labored for a water firm that employed drivers who wanted CDLs, to provide 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, corresponding to instances of bottled Fiji, VOSS and Essentia water, instances of bottled Arizona Iced Tea, espresso and tea merchandise and packing containers of Twizzlers and Swedish Fish.
Cederquist accepted a wide range of bribes together with stock from the water firm valued within the 1000’s of {dollars}; a $750 granite put up and mailbox; a brand new driveway valued at over $10,000; and a snowblower valued at almost $2,000. Cederquist described one such applicant as “horrible,” and “brain dead,” however gave him a passing rating anyway in trade for the snowblower.
Sentencing has been set for July 24.
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