Milan deliberations to begin today

By CLINT RILEYand RENEE WINKLER
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN

Twelve South Jerseyans are expected to begin debating behind closed doors in U.S. District Court today whether Camden Mayor Milton Milan is the corrupt politician prosecutors say he is or a forward-thinking leader opponents targeted to destroy.

"Don't let the government win here," Milan's lead defense lawyer Carlos Martir Jr. told jurors Tuesday during final arguments in the mayor's federal corruption trial. " Allow him to go back. Allow him to finish the job he has tried to do while being watched by the government.

"Find Mayor Milton Milan not guilty," Martir urged. " Allow him to continue his good work."

The glowing portrait Martir painted for jurors of the 38- year-old, first-term mayor hung in stark contrast to the shadowy image presented by federal prosecutors. Prosecutors alleged during closing remarks Monday and Tuesday that Milan repeatedly used his public office to enrich himself, not the citizens of the state's poorest city who elected him.

In the government's final rebuttal statement to jurors Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Futcher showed a copy of the mayor's City Hall appointment calendar for Jan. 8, 1998. All the mayor's appointments on the calendar were marked canceled.

She then showed jurors a photograph from an FBI surveillance video taken the same Thursday. That photograph captured Milan and mob associate Daniel Daidone waiting at Philadelphia International Airport for an airplane to take them to a Florida golf outing, a trip the government alleges was paid for by the mob.

"That shows what Milton Milan's interest was in the City of Camden and whose interests were first," Futcher argued.

When jurors begin deliberating, they will consider both the merits and weaknesses of the government's complex, 19- count corruption case against Milan. The mayor faces an array of serious allegations ranging from laundering $65, 000 in drug profits before taking public office to accepting $30,000 to $50,000 in cash and gifts from the Philadelphia/South Jersey La Cosa Nostra after being elected to City Council in 1995, and later mayor.

Milan also is accused of numerous other crimes including charges that he:

•staged a break-in with his former business partner to illegally collect insurance money;

•accepted two vehicles and thousands of dollars of free home improvements from city contractors;

•illegally used campaign money to pay for a vacation to Puerto Rico;

•authorized the shakedown of a political contribution from the city's public defender when he was up for reappointment by the mayor.

Martir, Milan's lawyer, told jurors in his closing statement Tuesday that government investigators spent four years tracking Milan's every move. He argued prosecutors have tried to do criminally what Milan's opponents could not do politically.

He told jurors that if they examine the evidence they will discover the case against the mayor is built on little more than colorful summary charts and the testimony of convicted criminals seeking lesser punishment from the government.

Most notably, Martir singled out former Philadelphia/ South Jersey mob boss Ralph Natale, who testified that from 1996 to 1998 he gave Milan between $30,000 and $50,000 in cash and gifts through Daidone, his associate.

Prosecutors dressed Natale nicely, but that does not hide the fact that he is an admitted killer, thug and liar, Martir argued.

"If you believe Ralph Natale, then the mayor is guilty," Martir conceded to jurors. But he said if they don't find the mob boss credible, "then the mayor is not guilty."

The defense lawyer also reminded jurors that the Mafia did not receive any city contracts in Camden, despite a conspiracy to do so.

"No doubt there was a plan to use the first Puerto Rican mayor of Camden to infiltrate Camden government," Martir acknowledged. However, he said, "they failed to accomplish their goals."

Prosecutors have told jurors that to convict Milan of accepting bribes from the mob they do not have to prove any mobsters ever received any city contracts, only that the mayor took official action on their behalf, such as issuing memos supporting their interests.

Much of the mayor's defense argument involved discrediting the central witnesses - many onetime close associates - who testified against him.

Martir pointed a finger at Milan's former business partner, Gholam "Joseph" Darakhshan, who testified Milan staged a burglary at their former construction business and collected the insurance money. Darakhshan planned and carried out that crime, Martir suggested.

Martir suggested to jurors that Joseph S. Caruso, a former Milan fund-raiser and city municipal prosecutor, acted alone when he solicited a $5,000 political contribution. Caruso, who pleaded guilty to taking part in the scheme, testified he extorted the money from the city's public defender after Milan told him the contribution had to be made if the municipal public defender wanted to be reappointed.

Martir also suggested that Milan's former top aide and campaign treasurer, Douglas Bradley, on his own concocted a scheme to use a campaign fund to pay for a post-election trip to Puerto Rico for Milan and his supporters. Martir also suggested that Camden landlord Mark Willis pocketed $2, 500 from the scheme; Willis testified that Milan kept the money.

The most serious allegation Milan faces is that he accepted a $65,000 cash loan before taking public office from convicted drug lord Jose "JR" Rivera. Rivera testified Milan had to have known at the time that the money came from illegal drug dealing because he and Milan hung out together in his office with some of the most notorious drug dealers in city history.

Martir told jurors Milan knew Rivera simply as a legitimate, successful East Camden auto parts dealer.

"I don't think hanging out with drug dealers makes one a drug dealer," Martir said. "Does that place knowledge on the mayor that he knew it was drug proceeds?"