Ex-Mass. State Police trooper pleads guilty to driver's license scheme
A former Massachusetts State Police trooper from Wareham pleaded guilty last week for his role in a conspiracy to falsify records to certain people who failed taking their Commercial Driver's License tests, United States Attorney Leah Foley's office said.
On Friday, Perry Mendes, 64, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to falsify records, three counts of falsifying records and two counts of making false statements, Foley's office said in a statement released Tuesday. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani scheduled Mendes' sentencing for July 15. Mendes was charged in a 74-count indictment in January 2024.
Between May 2019 and January 2023, Mendes and three other members of the Commercial Driver's License unit gave preferential treatment to at least 17 CDL applicants, Foley's office said. Mendes and others gave passing scores to those applicants who took the CDL test regardless of whether they actually passed.
The men used the code word 'golden' to identify the applicants, the statement read. Butner texted comments to another co-conspirator: 'Golden mess,' 'Total mess this guy[.] i think some time[s] we should just do what we can but not golden. I'll tell you about it later,' among other messages.
Mendes was among several retired or suspended state troopers previously indicted in connection with the scheme. Sgt. Gary Cederquist, 58, of Stoughton; retired Trooper Calvin Butner, 64, of Wareham; Trooper Joel Rogers, 54, of Bridgewater; civilian Scott Camara, 42, of Rehoboth; and Eric Mathison, 47, of Boston, were all named in the January 2024 indictment.
Cederquist gave passing scores to several applicants who actually failed the CDL skills test, and others who only took a partial test, federal prosecutors said. He did this in exchange for bribes of free inventory from the water company. The free items included bottled Fiji, bottled Arizona Iced Tea and coffee and tea products. Mathison delivered these items to an office trailer at the CDL test site in Stoughton.
Cederquist and Rogers were both suspended without pay.
Federal prosecutors said in one case, Mathison admitted to getting texts from Cederquist that described one CDL applicant as an 'an idiot,' who had 'no idea what he's doing,' and 'should have failed about 10 times already.' Cederquist gave this applicant a passing score.
On March 21, Mathison pleaded guilty, as did Butner on April 7.
The charge of conspiracy to commit extortion provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
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