DETROIT – Former Detroit City Council president Charles Pugh, who resigned in disgrace and left Detroit in the middle of the night amidst allegations he was after a student he mentored for sex is heading to trial.
U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson has set the trial for Oct. 13, 2015.
[Web extra] Read judge's order setting Pugh's trial date
Pugh had asked to have the allegations in the civil lawsuit against him dismissed, but the judge declined.
Pugh is accused by the family of a student he mentored in his leadership academy at the Detroit Public Schools' Frederick Douglass High School. The lawsuit claims Pugh was grooming the young man for sex by buying him a phone and other items. It also claims Pugh wanted the student to make sexually provocative videos and send them to him as payment. A criminal investigation into these allegations resulted in no charges against Pugh.
In new federal court records, Pugh says, "This case exists solely in the minds of the plaintiff's mother and her attorneys."
He also says he has no intention of settling this case. The district is also being sued.