Judge Recuses Self In Charles Pugh Teen Sex Assault Case

DETROIT (WWJ) - A different judge will be presiding over a sex assault case involving former Detroit City Council president and Channel 2 anchor Charles Pugh.

At a probable cause conference Tuesday, 36th District Court Judge Shannon Holmes recused herself, saying she has worked with Pugh in the past and knows the victim's family. Judge Deborah Lewis Langston was immediately appointed to the case.

The Wayne County prosecutor's office charged Pugh, 44, with six counts of criminal sexual conduct for an alleged sexual relationship he had with a teenage boy more than a decade ago. He's being held on a $500,000 bond.

Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the alleged offenses occurred between September 2003 and May 2004. The alleged victim, now 27-years-old, met Pugh for the first time when he was with a theater group that performed at Fox 2 while Pugh was working at the station.

"The complainant approached Pugh about an internship and they exchanged phone numbers," Worthy said in a statement. "The teen did not work as an intern at Fox 2; but during the summer of 2003, at Pugh's invitation the teen went to Pugh's Detroit apartment several times."

It's alleged that Pugh engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with the teen, whom he kept in touch with by phone and text message, multiple times at his apartment.

Worthy said specific facts and evidence in the case will be presented in court at the preliminary examination, set for August 5.

"Despite what the defendant has meant to the City in the past, and the positive work he did here, we cannot and will not turn a blind eye to these alleged facts," she said.

Pugh was arrested at his home in Harlem on June 23. If convicted as charged, he faces up to life in prison.

The charges are unrelated to a case involving a 17-year-old who sued and collected $250,000 from Pugh in a sexual grooming case. The young man said Pugh made sexual advances while serving as a mentor at Douglass Academy in 2012. The 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.

Pugh was not charged criminally in that case. He abruptly quit city government in 2013 and moved to New York when allegations surfaced, later saying he was embarrassed.