Public reaction to Milton Milan's guilty verdict is mixed

By STEVE LEVINE
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN

While a panel of jurors found Milton Milan guilty of 14 corruption charges, the court of public opinion is anything but conclusive.

In interviews with more than a dozen residents, visitors and workers - black, white and Hispanic - reaction to the now former mayor's conviction ranged from "justice was served" to "it's a set-up, man."

Convicted Thursday, Milan awaits sentencing in a Philadelphia detention center and was formally removed from office by a Superior Court judge on Friday.

In the downtown McDonald's restaurant moments after the conviction, the set-up theory ran rampant.

"It's a conspiracy," said Lakewood resident Sherita Womack, 22, who said she's been following the case.

"It's a set-up," said another customer, Isaah Robinson, 62.

Robinson, who moved here from Jamaica 22 years ago, said he thinks the mayors of Camden are being framed. He thinks it's no coincidence that three of the city's last five mayors, Angelo Errichetti, Arnold Webster and now Milan, were convicted of corruption.

"This is a consistent thing," he said. "The third one, why? It's a plan to get them down."

Milan was convicted of charges ranging from mail fraud, wire fraud and taking payoffs from the mob, to laundering money and staging a burglary to collect the insurance. He faces nine to 11‘ years in prison.

Anthony Colbert, 51, of Camden, thought the conviction was justified but that Milan should not have been sent to jail. He believes politicians - from the White House to the local courthouse - are "no more corrupt than the people they represent."

"What mayor doesn't do these things?" Colbert said. "It' s naive of us to expect him not to."

Waiting for a bus in the cold, biting snow outside the Elgin Diner on Mount Ephraim Avenue Friday morning, Elisa Layton, 40, called Milan "a disgrace.

"He's in a position of leadership, not just for Hispanics, but for all people," said the former Camden resident, who now lives in Atlanta.

Inside, Percy Harmon, 47, of Camden, disagreed. He said the city got better, not worse, during the Milan administration.

"You see street sweepers every day," he said. "You never saw them before."

Cleanliness aside, does he think Milan is guilty?

"I really don't," he said without hesitating. "Politics is such a dirty game. They can make you appear to be the worst person on earth if they want to."

But sure as some were of Milan's innocence, others were certain of his guilt.

"He got his just due," said Dot Cassella, 69, of the city's Fairview section.

"I'm glad he got convicted," said her friend, Gloria Richardson, 75, also from the Fairview section. "Get him out before he does more damage."

Waitress Kimberly Bird, 38, of Collingswood, said she's worked all her life in Camden, the past seven years at the Elgin Diner, and that she's certain Milan is guilty.

"You do your dirt, it's going to come out in the laundry," she said. "Can't we get someone to just do the job?"

Her co-worker, Margie Kennedy, 51, said she's disgusted that yet another Camden mayor has gone down for corruption, but the lifelong city resident said she may have a solution.

"If the men couldn't do it, maybe they need a woman," she said.

City Council President Gwendolyn Faison was sworn in Friday as Milan's interim replacement, a solution that Kennedy found appealing, if only for the time being.

"I wouldn't mind seeing that," said Kennedy, an Elgin Diner employee for 31 years. "She's a very nice woman."