A specific allegation against Charles Pugh is a police matter now.
A Detroit mother and her 18-year-old son met for nearly two hours Saturday afternoon with Madison Heights detectives to describe what she calls inappropriate behavior by Detroit's City Council president, according to The Detroit News.
The mother says filed a criminal complaint involving an incident between the teen and Pugh on May 31 in the Oakland suburb, according to an article by Christine MacDonald and Lauren Abdel-Razzaq.
She wouldn’t give more specifics because she said she wants detectives to investigate, but said she is accusing Pugh of “inappropriate conduct.”
She said she is going to hold off filing a planned lawsuit against Pugh, the city of Detroit and the Detroit Public Schools for not doing more to protect her son. Pugh was a mentor to the teen through Frederick Douglass Academy in Detroit and first met him in September when he was 17, the mother said.
“This seems to be the best thing to do right now,” said the mother in the police department lobby near 13 Mile and John R. . . .He violated my son’s trust as an authority figure. At this time I will let police handle it and let them go from there. I hope they investigate this.”
Friday night:
While people in Detroit worry about his well-being and colleagues try to figure out how to replace him, missing City Council President Charles Pugh reportedly has been spotted in a Seattle coffeehouse, WDIV said on its 11 p.m. newscast Friday.
A viewer identified on the screen as Karen Horlocker said she snapped a photo of Pugh, who was with a friend, she said in a taped phone interview with the station. She did not elaborate.
It would be difficult for the station to verify the viewer's account, but according to online search engines, a 50-year-old woman named Karen Horlocker lives in St. Clair Shores.
Horlocker told WDIV she is visiting Seattle with her family on their way to an Alaskan cruise. She said she recognized the familiar face in a Starbucks and asked if he were Charles Pugh.
"Yes, I am," she quoted him as saying.
He appeared calm, she said.
"He seemed very relaxed and just enjoying himself," Horlocker told WDIV's Chauncy Glover.
WXYZ-TV also reported a viewer had spotted Pugh in a Starbucks on Pike Street in Seattle, and it ran the same photo of Pugh, which is the one shown on Deadline Detroit. That viewer, a woman, told the station her cousin had approached Pugh.
Those are the first reported Pugh sightings in more than a week, and his apparently relaxed mood in Seattle contrasts sharply with the scene he has left behind. His disappearance has caused a huge amount of anxiety in Detroit, and has added a surreal aspect to the drama at city hall as officials scramble to stave off bankruptcy.
The bizarre vanishing act took place shortly before accounts surfaced this week about a potentially inappropriate relationship with a teenage student from Douglass Academy whom Pugh had been mentoring.
Ramona Prater, Pugh’s chief of staff, told the Free Press Thursday that she was increasingly worried about Pugh because he didn't answer text messages. She said her last contact with Pugh was Tuesday, when he told her he'd take a three-to-four week medical leave.
Former mayoral aide Karen Dumas shared her concern Thursday on Facebook: "The longer he is missing, the more I fear for his safety at his own hands."
Also on Friday night, Fox 2's Charlie LeDuff reported the content of one of the texts Pugh allegedly sent the boy he had mentored, who is now 18 and a recent high school graduate.
The text was sent at 12:18 a.m. on Feb. 21, 2013 and said, "Is this you? Since yo ass didn't text me. lol lets go at 2 pm."
In a commentary Saturday about media coverage, Jalopnik Detroit blogger Aaron Foley speculates about an orchestrated series of revelations by the Douglass Academy senior's relatives:
You've got to hand it to the family for what appears to be a well-executed media tour. Rather than spread thin throughout all of our local outlets and risk diluting the story, you can see the strategy: Relative hits up gossipy (but well-listened) morning radio show [WJLB], lawyers handle the press conferences and man-about-town LeDuff gets just enough of a scoop to keep the story out front.
The Free Press reports Saturday some other students and mentors at the school say Pugh was interested only in helping kids.
Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr on Thursday stripped all powers from Pugh, as well as his $76,911 base pay. Pugh retains his title, but his vote will not count, according to a spokesman for Orr.
The council's policy staff and city Law Department are drafting guidance briefs on how the council should handle Pugh’s prolonged absence, Councilwoman Santeel Jenkins told Joe Guillen of the Free Press.
"I’m still worried about him . . . I don’t know that he’s 100% OK,” Jenkins she said after Friday morning’s council meeting. . . .
"I don’t want to speculate on whether he’s going to choose to come back or not. I’m just hoping that we will have some resolution, some closure by Tuesday.”
That's when the council will vote to replace Gary Brown as president pro tem, the second-ranking position. He's becoming Orr's deputy at $225,000 a year.
