DETROIT – Charles Pugh, 50, returns to public life after spending 5½ years in a Michigan prison. The former WJBK-TV reporter was convicted in 2016 on two felony counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under 16.
“It’s embarrassing to have a public misstep and you’re letting down a lot of people,” said Pugh. “When a lot of people believe in you, look up to you… that’s one of the dangers of asking to be someone’s role model, when something goes wrong… but because I know there were a lot of people who believe in me and prayed for me and supported me, I owe it to the community to talk about the anatomy of growth.”
The TV news personality entered into politics and was elected as Detroit City Council president in 2009. He became mysteriously absent from his elected position and ultimately fled the city amid allegations of inappropriate relations with another young man whom he first mentored when he was a teen in high school.
In an exclusive interview with Michigan Chronicle, Pugh says he isn’t hiding his wrong doings and that his sexually inappropriate relationship with a minor was a “stupid mistake.”
He says his wrongdoings are a lesson learned and had a lot of time behind prison bars to examine his life-altering choices. Pugh said he is ready to talk about his shortcomings to help others while also moving forward with his life.
“I believe in restorative justice. I believe when people commit crimes, …they should be allowed to correct that mistake and be allowed to come back to the community and get a job, start a business, reintegrate, find a church home …and focus their lives on correct principals.”
Pugh says correcting his life’s direction is what will be his focus now. Released from prison late last year, he is currently serving a two-year parole, must wear a tether for six months, and is now on the Michigan Sex Offender Registry. “It’s important to me to re-establish myself in the community that I love and show that all of us, even you do wrong …you should be able to come back and move forward. Nobody is worth throwing away, not one person.”
From drug dealers to men with anger management and mental health issues, during his time in prison, Pugh talked about getting to know the personal stories of his fellow inmates – their dreams, skills and talent, his inspiration to them is what drove him to get through his own ordeal. “I learned from them that we’re all the same. We all have talents, but we all need people to believe in us and encourage us. I took on the role not as a victim because I was in prison. I took on the role as a leader because we can be a leader everywhere we go. To encourage people to do more and be more.”
Despite his once leadership role of Detroit’s legislative body, he doesn’t plan to get back into politics anytime soon and says his elected position didn’t yield the kind of change he once thought it would embody for Detroit. “What I learned, a lot of times the elected people have the least amount of power. The real power is money. The real power is working hard and having an idea in the community and executing that idea. There are a lot of neighborhood associations and non-profit organizations that are doing way more than what elected officials are doing, especially in the legislative body.”
He talked about being one of those people someday to impact and bring positive change for Detroit without being elected. One of the ways he wants to pursue that front is the creation of a business which he says will employ people and bring in significant revenue. Pugh declined to specify further into his current business plans.
Meanwhile, Pugh plans to partner with his Murray Wright High School friend, Reggie Reg Davis. Before the earlier heights of their careers, they made a commitment to one another as Detroit Public School students to pursue post-secondary education and return to succeed in TV and radio while being role models for their community.
Fast-forward years later, the pair are making a return to broadcasting along with other beloved Detroit radio veterans such as COCO, Foolish, and Shanie D. They believe Detroiters miss the sound of Detroit on-air personalities who were fun and relatable before syndication and other programming changes over time.
“Charles and I talked about these things in the hallways of Murray Wright,” said Davis.” This was inevitable for us to come together at this particular time. This would be waste of a good human being if he comes home and we throw him to the side and silence him.”
Grown Folks Radio Network will launch with 5 new internet radio/podcast stations in 2022. GFRN will introduce its first of 5 urban formats on Thursday, March 24 at 9am with the introduction of hip-hop formatted ReggieRegRadio.com. Radio broadcast legend and former Wayne County Commissioner will showcase this new internet radio station with a one-hour interview featuring Pugh, his childhood friend.
