Guess the party… because NPR will be too shy to tell you.
The former president of the Detroit City Council has been granted parole about five years after his conviction for sexually assaulting a teenage boy when he previously worked as a TV journalist.
Journalism and politics. He really had it all.
Charles Pugh was sentenced in November 2016 to at least 5 1/2 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct. The teen was younger than 16 when Pugh sexually assaulted him in 2003 and 2004. At the time, Pugh worked for WJBK-TV.
Pugh was elected to the City Council in 2009 but suddenly quit in 2013 and mysteriously left Detroit as allegations surfaced about sexual misconduct.
Separately, a jury in 2015 ordered Pugh to pay $250,000 for sexually harassing a teen.
5 years have passed and Pugh is getting ready to be set loose even though the sentence should have been longer.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Thomas Cameron sentenced him to 5½ to 15 years in prison for having sex with a minor, who was 14 and 15 when the acts occurred.
“You used your celebrity status, and your position of trust, to convince parents to entrust you with their children,” Cameron told Pugh.
Pugh, 45, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct as part of a plea deal reached in the case last month.
He agreed to receive sex offender counseling, not have any unsupervised contact with minors and be on the sex offender registry for life as part of that deal. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carry a maximum life prison sentence.
Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Danielle Bennetts said when the plea agreement was created, prosecutors took into consideration what would serve as a deterrent to not just Pugh, but other people in the community.
She said she thinks Pugh “needs to come to terms with a sickness that he has.”
I’m sure it’ll all work out.
Can Detroit’s First Openly Gay Pol Save the City? – Time
That was in 2008. Offhand, I’d say the answer is probably, “no”.
But, enjoy Pugh interviewing Barack Obama.
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