New Jersey transportation engineer accused of soliciting bribes

A senior engineer for the New Jersey Department of Transportation has been charged with soliciting bribes from a railroad company and inflating the cost of a state-funded repair project by about $700,000, officials announced Friday.

Gaudner B. Metellus, 31, of Philadelphia, and Ernest J. Dubose, 30, of Boston, were arrested late Thursday, said Peter Aseltine, a spokesman with the state Attorney General's Office. Dubose is accused of helping solicit $325,000 in bribes.

Metellus had been working for the state and introduced Dubose as a consultant to representatives of the Morristown & Erie Railway Inc., authorities said.

The shortline freight railroad was operating in Morris and Essex Counties, and Metellus and Dubose allegedly asked that it inflate repair costs for a bridge to $1.4 million, authorities said.

Metellus and Dubose told the company to submit invoices for work that would never be performed, authorities said.

The men were to split extra grant money with the company.

On Aug. 12, railway officials secretly taped a meeting with Metellus when he described the plan at the company's offices in Morristown. The next day, the rail company contacted law enforcement.

On Aug. 23, Metellus and Dubose met with the rail officials again and received checks made payable to Dubose for $10,000 and $315,000, authorities said.

Both men are charged with official misconduct and attempted theft by deception. Neither could be reached for comment Friday.

"This was a case of the fox minding the henhouse, because Metellus was responsible for monitoring rail projects to ensure that grant funds were properly spent," New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow said in a statement issued Friday.

Metellus "brazenly violated the public trust," she said.