Crime
“Put simply, [Gary] Cederquist is the very embodiment of public corruption,” prosecutors said.
A former Massachusetts State Police sergeant was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday for masterminding a scheme to rig commercial driver’s license tests in exchange for bribes that ranged from snacks and water bottles to a new driveway.
Gary Cederquist, 60, of Stoughton, was one of four troopers charged in the State Police CDL scandal in January 2024. The only defendant to go to trial, he was convicted of dozens of federal charges earlier this year.
Cederquist took bribes, extorted people, falsified records, and “jeopardized the safety of everyone on the roads and highways of Massachusetts (and beyond),” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
“Put simply, Cederquist is the very embodiment of public corruption,” they added.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Cederquist to six years in federal prison and two years of supervised release, also ordering him to pay a $30,000 fine, $18,300 in restitution, and a special assessment of $4,800. He will report to prison Nov. 25.
“I deeply regret the decisions that I made, letting down my family, my coworkers, current members of the State Police, past members of the State Police, and future members of the State Police,” Cederquist said in a Boston courtroom Tuesday, according to The Boston Globe. “I’d like to say I’m sorry.”
In their sentencing memo, prosecutors Adam Deitch and Christine Wichers said Cederquist “demonstrated a willingness to trade his badge and police uniform for the oddest and greediest array of material goods: a new driveway, a snowblower, a mailbox, premium bottled water, and Swedish fish.”
They called for a nine-year prison sentence, arguing the punishment must reflect both the gravity of Cederquist’s conduct “as well as the terrifying potential consequences of what he did.”
Kevin Reddington, Cederquist’s attorney, conceded the ex-trooper’s misconduct was “a serious blemish on an otherwise respectable law enforcement career.”
In a sentencing memo of his own, Reddington said Cederquist acknowledges he had a duty to ensure the CDL candidates were safe and competent drivers. The former sergeant also knows that his failure to do so “was a serious betrayal of public trust and, as the government has repeatedly argued, an endangerment to public safety,” Reddington wrote.
According to prosecutors, Cederquist conspired with subordinates in the State Police CDL Unit to trade passing test scores for bribes, ultimately turning the unit into a “criminal enterprise.”
Cederquist “utterly failed to uphold the values required for his position and violated the public’s trust,” prosecutors asserted, accusing him of demonstrating a “core dishonesty” that was “shocking and inexcusable.”
Reddington, meanwhile, pointed to the decades Cederquist served in law enforcement prior to taking over the CDL unit in 2017. He noted in his sentencing memo that Cederquist joined the Metropolitan District Commission Police in 1987, then became a trooper when that agency merged with the State Police five years later.
Cederquist retired in January 2024 and received a dishonorable discharge.
While Cederquist did not follow several of his co-conspirators in making a plea agreement with prosecutors, Reddington noted the ex-trooper did not testify in his own defense and presented no evidence other than cross-examination.
“Clearly the defendant was well aware and extremely remorseful of what constitutes the sad end of a[n] otherwise respectable law enforcement career,” Reddington wrote.
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