Milton Milan meets fate alone and leaves a city with dashed hopes

By KEVIN RIORDAN
Courier-Post Staff

The 14 "guiltys" punctured the pin-drop silence of the packed courtroom. Hearing himself transformed from Camden mayor to convicted felon, Milton Milan blinked, but did not flinch.

Nor did he flinch when U.S. District Court Judge Joel Pisano declared that the mayor violated his oath and betrayed those who trusted him, including his own family.

And when it was time to be taken into custody, Milan nodded wordlessly to the federal marshal.

No quotes for the chilly mob of reporters waiting in front of the courthouse in the faded winter light of Cooper Street.

No photos of the big guy getting into his glossy " mayormobile" and being chauffeured home to his wife and kids in East Camden.

No sound bites. No swagger. No glimpse of the charisma and savvy that once, all too briefly, got many people hopeful about Camden again.

Not on this sad afternoon.

Without a word, the 38-year-old mayor walked out of the courtroom where he had spent the better part of two months. A courtroom where his family was nowhere to be found. Where his only identifiable friends were a trio of city officials, and where the defense attorney was a man he tried to fire.

For all intents and purposes, Milton Milan met his fate alone.

So alone in contrast to the memorable morning in early 1997 when he announced his mayoral candidacy before a cheering throng on sunny Roosevelt Plaza.

So alone compared to the warm spring night a few months later when his jampacked campaign headquarters was sweaty with celebration.

Milan made history that night. He had become the first Hispanic elected mayor of Camden. Many in the community were jubilant.

But as the judge noted and as the evidence showed, long before that happy occasion, Milan had begun consorting with criminals.

One such association, with a since-convicted drug dealer named Jose "JR" Rivera, had yielded loans that helped Milan' s construction company land a contract to build new houses in the city - an accomplishment that figured prominently on the resume that helped get Milan elected to city council, his steppingstone to becoming mayor.

So Milan's political rise was not a bootstrap saga of a ghetto boy eager to give back to his beloved Camden, but of a greedy guy on the take.

His City Hall was characterized not by can-do optimism, but by a welcome mat laid out for the mob.

Watching the mayor of Camden walk silently out of the courtroom, I felt a shiver of sympathy.

I wondered what it was like, at that moment, to be Milton Milan.

But in the elevator on the way out, an older lady asked a more important question: "What about this poor city?"