Advertisement

Pugh and the P Word

Jason A. Michael

DETROIT – While preparing to go to trial in 2015 in the civil case that ultimately ended with Pugh being ordered to pay his accuser, Khody Sanford, $250,000, Pugh's then council, Marc Deldon, won a pretrial motion that the word "pedophile" be banned from the court room. But during his preliminary hearing before Judge Deborah Langston from the 36th District Court the word was very much front and center.
"It appears to me that Mr. Pugh is a gay pedophile," Langston said as she bound the case over for trial. "And I don't care that he's gay. That's his business. I am concerned about children."
But if she doesn't care that he's gay, why did she use to the term gay pedophile? Some wonder about the damage the term may do not just to Pugh but to the LGBT community at large, a community that has fought for years to dispel the notion of a connection between being gay and being a child molester.
In a 2012 op-ed for the Huffington Post titled Homosexuality and Pedophilia: The False Link, well-known local psychotherapist and sex expert Joe Kort said that "to call child molestation of a boy by a man 'homosexual' or that of a girl by a man 'heterosexual' is to misunderstand pedophilia. No true pedophile is attracted to adults. So neither homosexuality nor heterosexuality applies."
If Kort's logic holds true, Pugh is, by his own admission, gay. He is not, however, a gay pedophile because no such thing exists. But there's more. Pugh may ultimately be found guilty of having a sexual relationship with a teenager who was 14 and 15 years old at the time. That still, according to the same Huffington Post piece, would not make him a pedophile.
Kort points to University of California researcher Gregory Herek and his definition of pedophilia. Herek says that pedophilia is "a psychosexual disorder characterized by a preference for prepubescent children as sexual partners, which may or may not be acted upon."
The unnamed accuser in the current case against Pugh was clearly not prepubescent and has stated he already knew he was gay at the time Pugh approached him. Unlike in his previous civil trial where coercion frequently came up, it does not matter whether Pugh's actions were forced or invited: sex between an adult male and a minor under the age of 16 is against the law in Michigan. Very against the law.
While a sixth charge was dropped because the alleged sexual activity took place after the accuser had turned 16, Pugh is still charged with five counts of criminal sexual conduct – three in the first degree and two in the second. The second degree charges carry a penalty of up to 15 years in prison and the first degree charges could get Pugh a life sentence.
But it still wouldn't make him a pedophile – technically – and therefore might mean that Judge Langston was not only factually misinformed in her declaration but detrimental to Pugh receiving a fair trial.
"The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to do two things, one to see if there is sufficient evidence to hold that person over for trial and two, to set bail," said Jay Kaplan, the LGBT Legal Project staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan. "The judge's comments were not helpful to that effort. That she thought Mr. Pugh was a gay pedophile … those comments don't necessarily go toward making those determinations.
"We at the ACLU believe that everyone is entitled to a fair trial and everyone is innocent until proven guilty," Kaplan continued. "The issue here is would [her words] have the effect of compromising a fair trial. Another judge will be handling his criminal trial, so whether or not a jury or enough people would have read those comments that they would have an impact to affect the potential for him to have a fair trial to me, that's the question."
Pugh was arraigned on Friday, Aug. 12. Wayne County Circuit Judge Thomas Cameron set the start date of Pugh's trial for Nov. 7. Cameron said that he estimates the trial will take four days and that approximately 15 witnesses may be called over that time.

Advertisement
Advertisement

From the Pride Source Marketplace

Go to the Marketplace
Directory default
Specializing in anxiety, depression, sexual compulsion,sex therapy, abuse recovery, HIV/AIDS,…
Learn More
Directory default
Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce Member
Learn More
Directory default
We utilize traditional and alternative therapy methods for lingering struggles with relationship…
Learn More
Directory default
A fund of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, The HOPE Fund is dedicated to funding…
Learn More
Advertisement