Fmr. Detroit City Council leader accused of sexual contact with teen
DETROIT - The former president of the Detroit City Council has been charged with six counts of criminal sexual conduct with a 14-year-old boy in a case from more than a decade ago.
According to the Wayne County District Attorney's Office, Charles Pugh met the teen in June 2003 while he was working at a local Fox news station as a reporter and anchor. The teen went to the station with a theater group and approached Pugh about a possible internship. The two exchanged numbers and "kept in touch by phone and text messages."
Pugh allegedly had "inappropriate sexual contact" with the teen at Pugh's Detroit home from September 2003 to May 2004.
Pugh was arrested "without incident" at his home in New York City on Thursday.
It is not the first time Pugh has been accused of inappropriate contact with a teen. CBS Detroit reports that in 2015, a federal jury found that Pugh inflicted emotional distress when he offered a teen money to make a sexually explicit video. He was ordered to pay the teen $250,000.
The young man said Pugh made sexual advances while serving as a mentor at Douglass Academy in 2012. The civil lawsuit claimed Pugh was given extraordinary access to boys, and that the school didn't do enough to protect students. The Detroit school district settled for $350,000.
According to the station, a police report said sexually explicit text messages and a video were exchanged between Pugh and the young man, who was 17 when he met Pugh.
"I wanna see your body. Front and back. So the video has to show everything," one message read. "I pay MORE for solos lol. $125 for solos and $150 if u shoot the vid over here lol," said another text message.
Pugh denied touching the teen, known as K.S., but admitted to sending the inappropriate texts.
"If anyone finds out about this, I'm dead. Erase these messages," Pugh allegedly told the teen.
Pugh was not charged criminally, and CBS Detroit reports that prosecutors say the current case is unrelated to the previous case.
Pugh abruptly quit city government in 2013 and moved to New York when allegations surfaced, later saying he was embarrassed.