Jury awards $250K to Charles Pugh's accuser in sex case Jury awards $250K to Charles Pugh's accuser in sex case

Tresa Baldas , Daniel Bethencourt | Detroit Free Press

After 4 1/2 hours of deliberations and a brief discussion with the lawyers, a jury of five men and five women in the sex-grooming trial of ex-Detroit Councilman Charles Pugh left the federal courthouse in silence Monday, having just delivered a legal and emotional blow to the former politician's accuser: A $250,000 verdict.

That's how much the jury decided a former Detroit high school student deserves to be compensated for the pain and suffering Pugh put him through by sexually pursuing him while he was a student, staring at him in class, touching his thigh once, and pressuring him into making a videotape of himself masturbating in exchange for $160 to spend on prom night.

"I was surprised by the amount of the verdict," the plaintiff's attorney, William Seikaly, said as he left the courthouse. "I have no idea why the jury did that."

Pugh, who now runs a couple of high-class restaurants in Manhattan, 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 he once mentored at Frederick Douglass Academy, and that his touching the teen's thigh near his genitalia on the last day of school amounted to battery. This happened when the student was 18, though he was 17 when he first met Pugh.

Pugh's lawyer, Marc Deldin, who argued that Pugh's accuser was old enough to know what he was doing and that he welcomed Pugh's advances, would only say: "I respect the jury's verdict."

As for Pugh, Seikaly said he predicts the former council president and TV news personality is toasting to a victory.

"I think he will go out and celebrate," Seikaly said of Pugh, echoing the words he said to the jury just before deliberations began.

"Anything lower than $750,000," Seikaly said in his closing statement, asking for a judgment of up to $1.5 million, "and Mr. Pugh will go to some fancy restaurant in Manhattan to have a toast to victory."

The plaintiff, who is now 20, stood quietly in the courtroom with his mother after the verdict was read. They showed no emotion and offered no comment.

Seikaly said that despite the low verdict award, his client is satisfied that his story got out, and that someone paid attention to him.

"This is a huge step in the healing process," Seikaly said. "For the first time, he felt he was heard."

During his testimony, the student, identified only as K.S., had claimed 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, who has never been charged with a crime, never confronted his accuser in court, but rather offered his testimony through a videotaped deposition. Pugh denied intentionally hurting the plaintiff, saying only that he was "dead wrong" for offering the student money for a sex tape, and that he should not have sent the salacious texts to the student.

In his videotaped testimony, Pugh also offered his first explanation as to why he fled Detroit in the middle of 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 in the videotaped deposition taken last month, sighing at times. “The country was about to find out about this horrible thing I had done. I had to get out of there.”

Outside the federal courthouse, Seikaly had a few choice words for Pugh.

“I find him to be incredibly arrogant,” Seikaly said of Pugh. “Amazingly narcissistic. … Here is a guy who is only remorseful about getting caught.”

Seikaly, who spoke to the jury after the verdict was delivered, said that he suspected that jurors were split on whether his client "should have said, 'No.' "

Pugh’s lawyer hammered away at that theme during trial and closing statement, repeatedly arguing that the plaintiff knew what he was doing, and did it anyway because he wanted money.

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

The plaintiff, who now works as a waiter at an Oakland County restaurant, also sued the Detroit Public Schools, which settled the case for $350,000 on the second day of trial. The plaintiff claimed DPS officials ignored his mother’s complaints about Pugh, and that Pugh aggressively pursued him while DPS officials looked the other way.

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.

“What’s next, hopefully, is healing,” Seikaly said.