Leah B. Foley United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | Department of Justice
A Boston resident has been sentenced to prison for participating in a scheme to bribe a former Massachusetts State Police sergeant. Eric Mathison, 48, received a sentence of one year and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The sentencing was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani. Prosecutors had recommended a two-year prison term.
Mathison was charged in January 2024 as part of a 74-count indictment that included five others, among them former troopers from the Massachusetts State Police’s Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Unit led by Sergeant Gary Cederquist. Mathison pleaded guilty in March 2025. Cederquist was convicted by a jury in May and is awaiting sentencing.
According to court documents, Mathison worked for a water company whose drivers required CDLs for their jobs. In exchange for providing free inventory such as bottled Fiji, VOSS and Essentia water, Arizona Iced Tea, coffee and tea products, energy drinks, and candy including Twizzlers and Swedish Fish, Cederquist gave passing scores to applicants who had failed or only partially completed the CDL skills test. These items were delivered by Mathison to an office trailer at the CDL test site in Stoughton, Massachusetts.
Mathison admitted to communicating with Cederquist about specific applicants’ performance on the tests and about inventory requests from Cederquist. Text messages presented during the case showed that Cederquist described one applicant as “an idiot,” who had “no idea what he’s doing,” and “should have failed about 10 times already.” Despite this assessment, the applicant received a passing score from Cederquist. In another exchange, Mathison asked about restocking supplies at the trailer; Cederquist replied that it was “in desperate need of restocking” with premium bottled water, tea, energy drinks and requested “a truckload of large water.”
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; and Brian C. Gallagher, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General for the Northeast Region. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christine Wichers and Adam W. Deitch prosecuted the case.
