Two participants in the Massachusetts scheme to give CDLs to unqualified candidates were sentenced to jail in separate proceedings this month.
Eric Mathison, who needed a supply of drivers and plied a state trooper with beverages to help get them, received a sentence of a year and a day, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts prosecuted the crime.
Scott Camara, the truck driving school teacher who aided in the Massachusetts conspiracy, received one month in jail.
The core of the scheme revolved around Gary Cederquist, the sergeant in charge of the CDL unit of the Massachusetts State Police. After a trial, Cederquiest was convicted of granting passing scores to applicants who would not otherwise have passed the test. He is to be sentenced October 14 and is the only person among the five charged in the scheme to not reach a plea deal and go to trial instead.
Swapping beverages for CDLs
According to the U.S. Attorney’s prepared statement released in conjunction with the Mathison sentencing, Mathison worked for a water and beverage hauling company that had a steady need for CDL-qualified drivers. He swapped out items his company transported–like Essentia water and Arizona Iced Tea–for Cederquist granting a CDL to applicants sent by the company despite their lack of qualification.
Mathison pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion. The U.S. Attorney had asked that Mathison receive two years in jail.
The indictment and the sentencing memo do not indicate Mathison received anything from the scheme except a supply of needed albeit unqualified drivers. What Camara received from the favors he granted Cederquist also is not clear in either the indictment or sentencing memo.
Camara received a sentence significantly less than what the federal government had asked. The U.S. Attorney’s office had sought 10 months in jail for Camara, one year of supervised release and a $5,500 fine. In addition to his one month behind bars, Camara received one year of supervised release and a $200 “special assessment.”
Camara pleaded guilty to two counts in the indictment: conspiracy to falsify records and perjury. A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office said he conspired with Cederquist to “falsify records with the intent to influence the proper administration” of federal rules on CDL testing and licensing.
The record falsification count involved Camara’s activities with Cederquist, who were friends in their personal lives. The perjury count Camara pleaded guilty to involved his testimony to a grand jury.
In the scheme, Camara, with access to a truck given his employment at a truck driving school, would provide a vehicle to Cederquist’s testing activities. The job candidates cited in the indictment were all state troopers seeking a CDL license.
Driving around the yard…a bit
“When the troopers showed up for their tests, they all experienced the following: Cederquist did not provide a Class A vehicle or a sponsor, and none of the troopers took a real skills test,” according to the sentencing memo. “Instead, Cederquist introduced the troopers to Mr. Camara and told them they would drive a truck – without a trailer – owned by Mr. Camara’s employer; none of the troopers took the air brakes test; none of them performed required maneuvers inside the marked lanes and cones (some of them performed zero maneuvers); and none of them performed the road test with Cederquist in the passenger seat. Instead, each of them sat in the truck cab with Mr. Camara, drove around the yard for a bit, and then went out on the road with Mr. Camara.”
The memo adds that at the Cederquist trial, one of the troopers who went through the motions of the CDL test “testified that it was the first time he had ever driven a truck with a manual transmission. At one point he was doing so poorly that he and Mr. Camara had to switch seats.”
Six years at truck driving schools
In its argument for a stiffer sentence, the U.S. Attorney’s office said the “nature and circumstances of Mr. Camara’s offenses, and his personal characteristics, weigh in favor of a significant sentence.”
It noted that he had been an instructor at two truck-driving schools for six years total. “He knew the requirements of a CDL skills test, and knew why the test was difficult – because putting unqualified drivers of heavy trucks and buses on the road risks public safety,” the sentencing memo said. “He was also a fireman – a public servant – who drove and even trained others on how to drive ladder trucks.”
“More than most CDL holders, Mr. Camara knew the risks involved in letting unqualified applicants get their CDLs,” the memo added. “He put his friendship with Cederquist ahead of the dangers he knew about when he conspired to falsify records enabling four unqualified troopers to receive their Class A CDLs.”
The original indictment contained 74 counts and five defendants. In addition to Cederquiest, Mathison and Camara, former state trooper Calvin Butner last month was sentenced to 3 months in jail, 12 months of supervised release with the first three served as home confinement, and a $900 “special assessment.”
Perry Mendes, also a state trooper, received one month in jail, also 12 months of supervised release (two in home confinement) and a $600 special assessment.
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