The 2024 indictment of several Massachusetts state troopers in charge of the commonwealth’s CDL testing program along with two civilians in a scheme to collect bribes in exchange for passing grades on the tests is heading toward further resolution for the defendants, with two of them recently sentenced to short periods in jail as well as other penalties.
Former trooper Calvin Butner on August 12 received a sentence of 3 months in jail, 12 months of supervised release with the first three served as home confinement, and a $900 “special assessment,” according to the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts.
Four days earlier, Perry Mendes, who like Butner was a state trooper, received one month in jail, also 12 months of supervised release but with two of them in home confinement and a $600 special assessment.
In April, Butner pleaded guilty to conspiracy to falsify CDL test scores. He also pleaded guilty to three counts of falsifying records, aiding and abetting by giving passing scores to applicants who failed the CDL test, and five counts of making false statements, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Mendes’ guilty plea involved one count of conspiracy to falsify records, three counts of falsifying records and two counts of making false statements.
Sentencings still to come
Sentencing awaits for three other individuals in the case, including the one defendant who went to trial, former trooper Gary Cederquist, convicted in May. He was originally scheduled to be sentenced in late July.
But in a court document filed Tuesday, Cederquist requested the sentencing to be delayed again until late September or early October. Cederquist in May was convicted of 48 of the 57 counts he had been charged with.
Two civilians also pleaded guilty to their involvement in the scheme.
Scott Camara, 44, pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to falsify records and one count of perjury. Earlier sentencing dates have been extended into September.
Eric Mathison, like Camara a civilian, ,pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion. He also awaits sentencing.
Feds wanted more time
In the case of Butner, the U.S. Attorney’s office had requested a far more stringent sentence, seeking 15 months in jail as well as supervision and a fine.
In the sentencing memo for Mendes, a year was requested.
“For years, Trooper Calvin Butner betrayed his State Police badge to dole out favors to friends and family members, all the while jeopardizing the safety of anyone on the roads and highways of Massachusetts and beyond,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in its sentencing memo for Butner. “He did this by himself, for people he knew from various aspects of life, and he did it in cooperation with others, conspiring with his (state police) brethren to ensure that anyone connected to members of the ‘CDL Unit’ in Stoughton could get their license to drive tractor-trailer trucks, oil tankers, and school buses without passing a real road skills test – or, in some cases, without ever taking a skills test at all.”
The modus operandi of the group, spelled out first in the indictment, was reiterated with examples in Butner’s sentencing memo.
As an example referring to a childhood friend showing up for his CDL test, the sentencing memo said when the friend arrived at the testing site, “Butner stamped the permit and told (the friend) he had passed the test. Butner then wrote on the application that (the friend) had taken and passed all parts of the test and fabricated from whole cloth specific scores and markings on Betts’s scoresheet.”
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