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Judge Denies Request To Lower Bond For Charles Pugh In Teen Sex Case

DETROIT (WWJ) - Former Detroit City Council President and TV news anchor Charles Pugh will have to come up with $150,000 if he wants to be free while his criminal case moves through court.

During a brief hearing Monday morning, Wayne County Judge Thomas Cameron denied a request by Pugh's defense attorney, Delphia Burton, to have his $150,000 cash or surety bond lowered.

Burton earlier called that figure "excessive," asking for a $50,000, 10 percent bond for her client, who faces a November trial on charges he raped a teenage boy more than a decade ago.

The alleged victim was working for Pugh as an unofficial intern or assistant while in high school — the two having met as the teen performed with his theater group at Fox 2 where Pugh worked at the time.

According to graphic pre-trial testimony, the now 27-year-old man described in detail sexual encounters with Pugh he says took place in 2003-05 when he was as young as 14 years old.

The alleged victim said he wanted to build a career and saw Pugh as a mentor. He said he already knew as a teen that he was homosexual and was attracted to the older man because he'd achieved success as a gay black man from Detroit.

Following the man's testimony, 36th District Court Judge Deborah Langston bound Pugh over for trial, agreeing to lower his $500,000 bond to $150,000 on the condition he turn over his passport and driver's license and wear a tether.

She called Pugh a "gay pedophile" who had basically turned the teen into "a sex slave."

Pugh abruptly quit city government in 2013 and moved to New York when allegations surfaced in connection with another young man he'd mentored, later saying he was embarrassed.

In a civil case, that plaintiff collected $250,000 after he said Pugh made sexual advances while working with himself and other teens at Douglass Academy in 2012. The Detroit school district, accused of not doing enough to protect students from Pugh, settled for $350,000.

In this latest case, Pugh is charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted on the first degree charge.

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