Charles Pugh
The former Detroit Public School student who is suing ex-City Council President Charles Pugh for sexual harassment, spoke out publicly for the first time.
The former student, now 20, who is listed in the lawsuit by his initials K.S., took the witness stand during trial on Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit to talk about his relationship with Pugh, who was a mentor at the school he attended, Frederick Douglass Academy.
He first met Pugh in 2012 while he was a senior in school and 17. When he graduated in June 2013, he was 18.
“He made me uncomfortable. He used to look at me the way girls did when they were interested in me,” he testified, according to a Detroit News report by Jennifer Chambers.
He was asked about how he felt about the sexual texts Pugh sent him -- and the request to make a sex video for $160 of him masturbating.
He said “it was a little crazy to me” and he only wanted Pugh's help to get to college.
“My mom raised us not to disrespect adults. I didn’t want him to get mad either,” he testified of Pugh. “I thought it was what grown-ups did. I’ve never been around adults with power. I thought that was how they communicated.”
The News reports:
The teen told the jury of how he left home for two months after allegations of Pugh’s behavior became public and the community he lives in knew he was the student involved. He said his extended family disowned him, believing he was gay.
He slept outside, begged for food and had one change of clothes. He didn’t bathe or brush his teeth, he said.
Asked what he was thinking about during that time, the teen said “what I would be doing if none of this ever happened. I tried to clear my mind but it always came back.”
Tresa Baldas writes in the Detroit FreePresss that the accuser says it bothered him that he made a sex tape for $160 so he could go to the prom his senior year.
“All I could do was think about how I got here … what I had to do," he said, according to the paper.
