East Boston man scheduled for sentencing for MSP CDL conspiracy

A man who forked over thousands of dollars worth of bottled water and candy to a Massachusetts State Police sergeant in exchange for passing grades on his company’s drivers’ commercial license tests is scheduled to be sentenced this week.

Eric Mathison, 48, of East Boston, pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion. He was one of six charged in January of last year in a 74-count indictment focused on the MSP’s Commercial Driver’s Licensing unit. He’s scheduled for sentencing on Wednesday. Prosecutors are asking for two years in prison while the defense sentencing memo asks for probation.

“Mathison talked about aspects of the scheme — and enacted it — openly and casually and treated it — that is, an extortion conspiracy involving a sergeant in the Massachusetts State Police and jeopardizing public safety — as if it was all a big joke,” prosecutors Adam Deitch and Christine Wichers wrote in their sentencing memo.

He was involved in a conspiracy that those involved called the “golden handshake”: an automatic passing grade — regardless of ability — for commercial driver license applicants who were connected to the quid pro quo.

At the center of the conspiracy was then-Sgt. Gary Cederquist, who ran the CDL Unit in Stoughton and, prosecutors say in a sentencing memo, “supervised every other participant in the scheme, and drove the extortion conspiracy.”

Cederquist and other troopers on his team handed over CDLs for gifts like a new driveway valued at $10,000 and a $2,000 snow blower. Or, in the case of Mathison, regular deliveries of premium bottled water, coffee and tea pods and candy like Twizzlers and Swedish Fish, which prosecutors conservatively valued at more than $8,300.

Mathison worked for the water company Belmont Springs, according to court documents, which needs drivers to deliver its goods on big trucks — which requires a commercial license. Such a license requires that applicants have demonstrable skills needed to operate the trucks on highways and city streets.

“These standards and regulations exist for one very simple reason: to protect and prevent death and injuries from the operation of commercial motor vehicles,” Former U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said at the time the conspirators were charged.

Mathison, prosecutors note, has a serious criminal history including arrests and convictions relating to impersonating police officers, including convictions in 2008 for robbery, assault and battery, and impersonating a police officer, for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Defense attorney Scott Lauer wrote that “Mr. Mathison readily admits that he was reckless and irresponsible as a young man. Since that time, however, he has tried to learn from his mistakes and rehabilitate himself.”

Lauer concedes that his client is culpable, but notes that Mathison’s “participation in the scheme benefitted the water company, not him personally … Mr. Mathison got nothing out of this arrangement financially.”

Instead, he did it for work, Lauer writes, as he is the primary breadwinner for his parents, who suffer from medical problems, as well as an adult brother on the autism spectrum.