A potential parole violation has become a political feud dividing the town.
"When you cut through all the politics," said the sex offender at the center of the controversy, "there's nothing to talk about."
Others have begged to differ.
For years, allegations have swirled that a sex offender was coaching with a Phillipsburg youth sports league. Emotions have run high, with legitimate concerns and campaign rhetoric becoming muddled in shouting matches at town council meetings.
Authorities recently cleared the Steele Hill Youth Sports Association of any wrongdoing, but those who called for the investigation in the first place are appealing to higher-ranking officials.
When you cut through all the politics and investigations, there is something to talk about and it's very simple: A man convicted of sexual assault on a teenager, a man whose parole didn't allow him to have contact with minors, was keeping score for a youth sports league.
KEEPING SCORE
Burton James Miller's name won't show up on any public registry of sex offenders.
The 54-year-old is regarded as a Tier I offender, the lowest of the three tiers and the least at risk to reoffend. It's a status generally known only to law enforcement.
He was among a group of men convicted in 1995 of assaulting a teenage girl at the Flemington Fair earlier that year and was sentenced to seven years in prison on a charge of second-degree sexual assault, according to the New Jersey State Parole Board and NJ Advance Media archives. He was also sentenced to community supervision for life -- he violated that in 2009 and was sentenced the following year to 45 days in the county jail, according to the parole board.
Earlier this month, Miller, a Phillipsburg resident, told lehighvalleylive.com that he never applied to be a coach, as accusers have said.
However, he did say he used to help out as a scorekeeper a few years ago while his son played with Steele Hill (neither he nor his son are involved with the organization now). He said he was told this was OK. Indeed, the parole board can grant permission for a sex offender to serve in a youth organization.
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But that did not happen here. As a condition of his release, Miller "is to refrain from initiating, establishing or maintaining contact with any minor," parole board Chairman James T. Plousis said in an email.
"Therefore," Plousis continued, "Burton Miller's assigned parole officer would not have given him permission to coach at a youth athletic program. The record does not reflect that Burton Miller was given authorization to participate as a scorekeeper."
When asked about that condition in a follow-up interview, Miller deferred comment to his parole officer. Plousis could not say if the board is investigating a possible violation.
"Any alleged violation of a condition of parole is investigated and addressed as required," he said. "The State Parole Board cannot comment on a specific investigation taking place."
THE INVESTIGATION
While it's possible Miller violated his parole, the Warren County Prosecutor's Office in May announced it had found no wrongdoing on the part of Steele Hill.
Allegations that he was coaching a youth sports team went to Phillipsburg police in the fall of 2015, according to police Chief Robert Stettner.
He said his predecessor, James Faulborn, handled the complaint and sent it to the prosecutor's office. Prosecutor Richard Burke said his office received the same request from the state attorney general's office.
In a brief letter to the town dated May 25, 2017, the prosecutor said his office had concluded its investigation. It had probed the "numerous individuals" to see if any member of Steele Hill "knowingly hired, engaged, or appointed (the sex offender) to serve in the organization" from 2014 to 2015.
"There is insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges against any member of the organization at this time," the letter concluded.
Warren County Prosecutor Richard Burke (Sue Beyer | lehighvalleylive.com file photo) Burke told lehighvalleylive.com that the investigation was focused specifically on the organization's awareness. There was "no evidence that any member of the association authorized or condoned ... or allowed him to coach," he said.
Speaking generally, the prosecutor said it is possible that a youth organization could end up in a similar situation if it did not follow internal protocols, but that is not necessarily criminal.
A statement from Steele Hill said that the governing board "completely cooperated" with the prosecutor's investigation. The group said Miller never applied to be a coach as accusers allege, and as such would not have been subject to a background check.
"He was a parent of one of the participating (children)," the Steele Hill statement said. "Neither the recreation department nor the organization currently conducts background checks on the parents of the children participating. Obviously, if a parent was a parolee, only that person would be aware of the strictures of his parole."
It does not appear that the scorekeeper position was one where the town required checks.
'WE DID ALL THE RIGHT THINGS'
Phillipsburg is no stranger to this sort of controversy. The town's police athletic league was disbanded in 2014 over myriad issues, including allowing volunteers to skirt town rules and coach without background checks.
Robert Fulper -- a frequent but so far unsuccessful candidate for town council -- has been one of the main voices questioning Steele Hill (where he used to volunteer), the town and the investigation. He said he doesn't want the same fate to befall Steele Hill, but dogged the group's current leadership.
"The same people who knowingly allowed this to happen were allowed to walk away unscathed," he said. "By not acting in an appropriate manner and by allowing them to remain on the board, we are not only affording them the opportunity to let it happen again ... we are encouraging it. When will we wake up?"
Phillipsburg Mayor Stephen Ellis (Erin Gallagher | lehighvalleylive.com file photo) But officials say steps have been taken to prevent it from happening again.
When he took office in January 2016, Mayor Stephen Ellis said the Steele Hill situation was one of the first items waiting for him. The town yielded to the prosecutor on the investigation, but local leaders looked at the ordinances governing the youth sports group.
"We did all the right things," he said.
Conflicting languages in some ordinances were addressed, and a new requirement that all youth sports volunteers wear ID badges was implemented.
"Since it was such a sensational accusation, the fact that people have IDs gave parents a sense of ... security, that the person (wearing it) was background-checked," the mayor said.
Steele Hill also touted the ID rule in its statement, saying compliance is "continuously ... reviewed with spot checks by both the town and the organization."
MORE TO COME?
Robert Fulper (Courtesy photo)Fulper, who filed the initial complaint not long after losing a race for a town council seat, is not ready to let the investigation go.
"Can't we agree that this is wrong?" Fulper said during a council meeting last month, in which he and Ellis shouted at each other as other officials raised their hands in appeals to calm both sides down.
Fulper held a tablet that supposedly showed video of the convicted sex offender coaching a kids' baseball game; he said the prosecutor's office didn't have that video or other forms of evidence he claimed to possess, "but they will."
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Prosecutor Burke said his office had received information from Fulper that was considered in the investigation. The video was not among that evidence, though Burke said his office would take a look. Anyone with more information related to the investigation can contact Detective Josh Beers at 908-475-6216.
"To say that we have not been in touch with him in terms of receiving information is not accurate," the prosecutor said.
On June 14, Fulper sent an email to state representatives (and a lehighvalleylive.com reporter) asking for a state-level investigation.
"There are entirely way too many conflicts of interest within that department," he wrote, referring to the prosecutor's office and asking for a state-level investigation.
Assemblyman Erik Peterson's office responded to all the email's recipients, saying that ethics laws prevent legislators from getting involved in matters that could end up in court. He referred Fulper back to the county prosecutor.
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Through it all, Miller, the convicted sex offender, has been caught in the middle. A potential parole violation has become a political feud dividing the town, one built on assumptions and politics.
He's ready for it to end.
"It's already been investigated," he said in mid-June. "It's already been reported. I've never been a coach. End of story."
Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.