Former Massachusetts trooper to plead guilty in beverages for CDLs bribe scheme

A former Massachusetts State Police (MSP) trooper will plead guilty to multiple charges for his role in a bribery scheme involving unqualified Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) applicants.

On April 1, authorities announced that former MSP trooper Calvin Butner, 64, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to falsify records, three counts of falsifying records and aiding and abetting, and five counts of making false statements.

Butner was one of six people charged in January 2024 in connection with a scheme to provide passing scores to CDL applicants who either failed their tests or did not complete their tests.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, between May 2019 and January 2023, Butner and three other MSP troopers with the CDL Unit “conspired” to give passing scores to at least 17 CDL applicants “regardless of whether or not they actually passed.”

Authorities allege that beverage company employee Eric Mathison, 48, conspired with the troopers to obtain CDLs on behalf of his employees so that they could drive delivery vehicles. In exchange, officials claim that Mathison provided the troopers with “cases of bottled Fiji, VOSS and Essentia water, cases of bottled Arizona Iced Tea and coffee and tea products, all of which Mathison delivered to an office trailer at the CDL test site in Stoughton.”

On March 21, 2025, Mathison pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion.

As part of the scheme, Butner and the co-defendants allegedly used the code word “golden” to identify CDL applicants who were part of the scheme.

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

“The indictment alleges that Butner gave passing scores to applicants about whom he texted the following comments to a co-conspirator:

• “This guys a mess. . . . Lol. He owes u a prime rib 6inch.”
• “Golden mess.”
• “He’s a mess Class A truck 2psi loss with truck running truck cut our again while timing”
• “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.””

All CDL recipients identified as not qualified during the course of this investigation have been reported to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, officials noted.

Butner has a plea hearing scheduled for April 7.