A former statie has been found guilty on dozens of counts in the Commercial Driver’s License bribery scheme, while the jury found the ex-sergeant not guilty on some counts.

Stoughton man Gary Cederquist, 59, was facing numerous federal charges in connection with a conspiracy to falsify records and give passing scores to certain Commercial Driver’s License applicants, including people who failed or did not take the CDL skills test, in exchange for bribes.

A jury found him guilty of 48 counts yesterday, while the jury found him not guilty on nine counts.

He was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to commit extortion, one count of extortion, six counts of honest services mail fraud, three counts of conspiracy to falsify records, 19 counts of falsification of records, and 17 counts of false statements.

Cederquist was acquitted of one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, two counts of extortion, three counts of falsification of records, and three counts of false statements.

“It is never a good day when a member of law enforcement is convicted of a crime, especially when it is a crime that compromises public safety,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement. “Gary Cederquist chose bribery and extortion over his oath to protect the community which he was sworn to serve.

“His greed put the public at risk when he devised a scheme to issue commercial driver’s licenses to applicants who had never taken a real test to operate heavy commercial vehicles on the roads and highways of Massachusetts,” Foley added. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office has the utmost respect for law enforcement, but we will not stand idly by if they violate the law.”

Cederquist was in charge of MSP’s CDL Unit, which is responsible for administering CDL skills tests. The CDL skills test is a demanding, in-person test that consists of three segments: Vehicle Inspection; Basic Control Skills; and the Road Test.

In Massachusetts, the pass rate was 48% in 2019, 44% in 2020, 41% in 2021 and 41% in 2022.

Between February 2019 and January 2023, Cederquist arranged for him and his co-conspirators to give passing scores to at least three dozen applicants regardless of whether or not they had actually passed or, in some cases, had even taken the CDL skills test — including in some instances in exchange for bribes.

Cederquist and his co-conspirators used the code word “golden handshake” or “golden” to identify applicants who received special treatment, and were to be given passing scores on their skills tests regardless of performance.

In text message conversations, Cederquist and his co-conspirators described a number of “golden” applicants as performing poorly on their skills tests. However, all of the applicants received passing scores.

Cederquist also conspired with his friend who worked for a water company that employed drivers who needed CDLs, to give passing scores to certain applicants affiliated with the water company.

In exchange for the passing scores, Cederquist accepted bribes of free inventory from the water company, such as cases of bottled Fiji, VOSS and Essentia water, cases of bottled Arizona Iced Tea, coffee and tea products and boxes of Twizzlers and Swedish Fish.

Cederquist accepted a variety of bribes including inventory from the water company valued in the thousands of dollars; a $750 granite post and mailbox; a new driveway valued at over $10,000; and a snowblower valued at nearly $2,000. Cederquist described one such applicant as “horrible,” and “brain dead,” but gave him a passing score anyway in exchange for the snowblower.

Sentencing has been set for July 24.