An Eastie man who was convicted of giving bribes to a Mass State Police sergeant in connection with a Commercial Driver’s License scheme has been sentenced to federal prison.
Eric Mathison, 48, is facing a year behind bars for his role in a conspiracy to give bribes to ex-Sgt. Gary Cederquist.
The bribes were in exchange for the statie to give false passing scores to certain CDL applicants who had failed or had taken only partial CDL skills tests.
Mathison’s year in federal prison will be followed by three years of supervised release. The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office had been calling for a prison sentence of two years followed by three years of supervised release, while Mathison’s defense attorney pushed for probation in lieu of incarceration.
The feds when seeking prison time cited his “serious criminal history, including, among other things, a variety of arrests and convictions relating to the impersonation of police officers.”
Last year, Mathison was charged in a 74-count indictment along with five others, including Cederquist and other former troopers who worked in Mass State Police’s CDL Unit, which was led by Cederquist.
Mathison, who worked for a water company that employed drivers who needed CDLs to drive their delivery vehicles, participated in the scheme designed for Cederquist to obtain thousands of dollars of merchandise from Mathison’s employer, Belmont Springs.
In exchange, Cederquist ensured that applicants for CDLs connected to Mathison and Belmont Springs would receive passing scores on the CDL skills test.
Mathison delivered truckloads of premium bottled water like Fiji, VOSS and Essentia water, boxes of coffee pods and tea, brand-new coffee and drink machines, cases of bottled Arizona Iced Tea, and candy, like Twizzlers and Swedish Fish, to Cederquist — both at his work trailer at MSP’s CDL testing site in Stoughton and at his house.
In turn, Cederquist provided passing scores to Belmont Springs CDL applicants, including to applicants who never took an actual test – or who, in some cases, failed it.
Mathison admitted to his communications with Cederquist about particular CDL applicants and their performance on the skills test, as well as inventory from the water company that Cederquist requested and that Mathison delivered.
For example, Mathison received texts from Cederquist describing one water company applicant as “an idiot,” who had “no idea what he’s doing,” and “should have failed about 10 times already.” Cederquist then gave this applicant a passing score.
On another occasion, Mathison asked Cederquist, “Hows the trailer holding,” to which Cederquist responded, “In desperate need of restocking,” along with a specific request for, among other things, premium bottled water, tea, energy drinks and a “truckload of large water.”
Cederquist was convicted by a jury in May and awaits sentencing.
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