by
Charles Pugh
The Charles Pugh scandal isn’t going away, even though authorities recently decided not to seek criminal charges against the former city council president for his questionable relationship with a Detroit high school student he was mentoring.
Farmington Hills lawyer Bill Seikaly filed legal papers Thursday afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court indicating that the student plans to sue Pugh in the capacity as a city council president, former Mayor Dave Bing and the city of Detroit for “personal injury” and “violation of civil rights.” Under the city’s bankruptcy proceedings, a lawsuit against the city must be filed and litigated in bankruptcy court.
Thursday's filing is the first step in beginning the lawsuit proceedings. One document says that the student will seek at least $1 million.
"If Charles Pugh and anyone else thinks this is going to go away, they're mistaken," said Seikaly Thursday night.
Pugh has previously denied any improper behavior. Pugh could not be reached for comment. Attempts to reach Bing Thursday were not successful.
The legal filing includes police reports on the investigation into Pugh and more than 100 pages of text messages, not all of which are between the student and Pugh. But the ones that are include graphic language about oral sex and Pugh’s obsession about getting the student to make a video of himself masturbating in exchange for money.
“I wanna see your body. Front and back. So the video has to show everything. lol. #EVERYTHING." The student appears hesitant in the texts but Pugh is insistent and continually offers money and video games for the sexual video.
At one point, Pugh texts: “Dude, if anyone finds out about this: I’m dead. So please keep this between us. . . . you have EXTRA money all the time.”
“The good news is I pay MORE for solos lol. $125 for solos and $150 if you shoot the vid over here lol.”
"You Will Never Be Broke"
Eventually the student makes a video on an iPad that Pugh provided and Pugh is quite pleased.
“This shit is SO not whack!!,” Pugh writes. “Dude that was THE BEST fuckin movie ANYBODY has EVER made for me!! OMF !!!! You will never be broke lol #EVER.”
Pugh got to know the student as part of a mentoring program he participated in at the Frederick Douglass Academy in Detroit. The student was 18.
Pugh apparently took an immediate liking to the student and bought him a new phone and clothing for a job interview at a fast food restaurant last spring.
After getting the student a phone and buying him clothes in Madison Heights, the two got into Pugh’s black Lincoln Town Car. Pugh then handed the student $40.
“Once I grabbed the money,” the student wrote in a statement taken by police, ”his hand dropped onto my thigh. His fingers were long and they were about an inch from my penis. When I looked up he was smiling at me and I moved his hand off my thigh and he began to laugh.”
In a Madison Heights Police report, the student said he made the sexual video not only for money but out of fear that Pugh, who helped get him a job at the restaurant, might get him fired.
Mom's Statement
The teen’s mother got angry when she learned Pugh was showering him with gifts. In a statement to police, she wrote that she went to the school and the media “to no avail” and finally got a lawyer. She said Pugh repeatedly begged her not to report his actions.
Police opened an investigation into the case and were looking at a possible charge of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree. In December, the Oakland County Prosecutor declined to file criminal charges.
During the probe,a detective wrote in a police report that attorney Seikaly had spoken to a former Pugh city council staff member who had contacted him.
The female staffer told Seikaly that she had observed Pugh work in the Detroit Mentor programs, formerly known as the Leadership Program.
The police report said: “She overheard the suspect comment that he could never be a teacher because of all the ‘fresh meat.’ Later she heard the suspect state that he could ‘bed’ any mentored kid, straight or gay, by giving them money if they were broke."
