Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press

A decade ago, Charles Pugh was living the dream, making a six-figure salary as an anchorman at Fox 2 news in Detroit.

Political stardom came next, as Pugh would become the second-most powerful political figure in Detroit, only after the mayor, when he won the seat of City Council president in 2009 as the top vote-getter in the city.

Today, he's a waiter at a soul food restaurant in Harlem.

In a classic fall-from-grace story, Pugh's life has taken many detours over the past few years — the latest one landing him in a New York restaurant, where he is serving soul food delicacies like chicken sliders on biscuits and macaroni and cheese. The Free Press discovered Pugh's current employment status while covering the latest development in his ongoing legal saga involving a former Detroit high school student who successfully sued him in a sexual grooming case.

That student is struggling to collect his $250,000 jury award from Pugh, who doesn't want to pay it, so today the plaintiff announced that he is going to go after Pugh's wages and assets.

In a filing in U.S. District Court, the plaintiff's lawyer argued that Pugh's salary running two upscale restaurants in New York should help cover the judgment. However, the Free Press learned today that Pugh no longer works at those restaurants — he was let go eight months ago — and he never "operated" them as he claimed in a deposition.

He was a waiter at The Cecil and Minton's — both run by Harlem Jazz Enterprises.

"He may have had some management responsibilities from time to time, but he was a server," Deena Siegelbaum, a publicist for Harlem Jazz Enterprises, told the Free Press today. "They decided to let him go more than eight months ago."

She declined to elaborate, noting only that Pugh "never 'ran' either restaurant," and that he is now a server at another New York restaurant. The Free Press left a phone message for Pugh at that restaurant, which the paper is not naming. An employee said that Pugh took today off.

Pugh, meanwhile, is under a federal court order to pay the former Detroit student $250,000 for sexually pursuing him during a high school mentorship program. A jury hit Pugh with that verdict in November, though Pugh is appealing.

The plaintiff's attorney William Seikaly said he's had enough, so he's going after Pugh's wages and any other assets he may have.

"If he would have really been remorseful, he wouldn’t have put my client though this trial. But he didn’t admit liability. He didn't admit anything in this trial. He just apologized," Seikaly said, stressing that's not enough. "This notion that we can just apologize and say, 'Oh, I’m sorry I did this. I'm sorry it happened, and we're all done,' -- It won't work anymore."

Seikaly also believes that Pugh continues to mingle with high society and enjoy a more-than-comfortable lifestyle in New York, though he was not aware of Pugh losing his job at the more upscale restaurants.

"His lifestyle has not changed, and my client’s situation has dramatically changed," Seikaly said. "He ought to accept the responsibility by making whatever payment he can and he simply refuses. In other words, nothing's changed."

Pugh's lawyer, Marc Deldin, was unavailable for comment. He has previously argued that Pugh shouldn't have to pay the plaintiff anything because, he contends, the plaintiff is entitled to only one "recovery" — and he is already getting a $350,000 settlement from Detroit Public Schools. The student also sued the DPS, claiming Pugh sexually pursued him while school officials looked the other way. DPS settled the case the second day of trial.

During trial, the former student from the all-male Frederick Douglass Academy told jurors that Pugh sexually pursued him for months after meeting him in a mentorship program at the school. The plaintiff testified that Pugh sent him dirty text messages, took him shopping, bought him a cell phone and clothes, and pressured him into making a videotape of himself masturbating in exchange for $160 to spend on the prom.

At trial's end, the jury concluded that the plaintiff was entitled to $250,000 in damages for pain and suffering. Pugh is contesting the verdict, and hopes to avoid paying anything pending his appeal.

Charles Pugh appeals $250,000 sex-grooming verdict

But Seikaly argues that Pugh has not filed a special bond that is required during an appeal, and therefore is not entitled to avoid paying the judgment pending his appeal. That means, he argues, that his client should be able to collect his money "expeditiously, before Pugh has further opportunity to hide or conceal assets."

But to do that, Seikaly wrote, the plaintiff needs permission to register the judgment against Pugh in New York's federal courts, and anywhere else Pugh may have assets. In the filing, Seikaly wrote that Pugh has "little to no" assets here in Michigan, and that he has no plans to return to Detroit. But he does have a job and residence in New York, and both should be used to help pay off what he owes his client, he wrote.

If the plaintiff is not allowed to enter the judgment in other courts, Seikaly wrote, that gives Pugh more time to "squander or hide assets" while his appeal takes possibly years to make its way through the courts.

According to Seikaly, the verdict award and settlement will go toward an educational trust that will help his client go back to school. The plaintiff was a chess player, track star and yearbook photographer who wanted to go to college until he got caught up with Pugh, he said.

Pugh's accuser also wants Pugh to pay for his legal fee for having to file this latest request, arguing sanctions are warranted in this situation.

Pugh's attorney, Deldin, could not be immediately reached for comment today.

During trial, Deldin repeatedly hammered away at this theme: The student was old enough to know what he was doing, and that he could have rejected Pugh's advances but never did. Pugh met the plaintiff when he was 17, but sexting and the sex tape production happened when he was 18.

Deldin argued to jurors that the student went along with Pugh's advances because he wanted money.

“He wasn’t powerless,” Deldin told jurors. “He had the ability to say 'No.' ”

Pugh: Accuser is double-dipping in sex case settlements

Pugh was cleared on the sexual harassment claim. But the jury sided with the plaintiff on two other claims, concluding that Pugh did intentionally inflict emotional distress on the former student, and that his touching the teen's thigh near his genitalia on the last day of school amounted to battery. This happened when the plaintiff was 18.

The plaintiff, who is now 20, told jurors that Pugh violated his trust, caused him to be ostracized by his friends and family because they thought he was gay, and pushed him into a deep depression that led to him living on the streets for months.

Pugh has never been charged with a crime. In his videotaped testimony, he has denied intentionally hurting the plaintiff, saying only that he was "dead wrong" for offering the student money for a sex tape and should not have sent the salacious texts.

In his videotaped testimony, Pugh also offered his first explanation as to why he fled Detroit in the middle of the night in 2013, when the sex scandal became public.

“I left because I was embarrassed. It was a very stressful time for me,” Pugh said. “The country was about to find out about this horrible thing I had done. I had to get out of there.”

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com