An alert tipster passes along word to Jalopnik Detroit that Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh, who has not been seen in the city since June but was last spotted in Seattle, is currently roaming about New York City.
At least as of Friday night he was in NYC. For all we know, Pugh has high-tailed it to the next destination by the time this post hits the Web. But Pugh, according to our tipster, "looked miserable" as he lounged at Native, a West Indian bar in Harlem late last night. Pugh was dining alone.
Our tipster is a Detroit native and has no connection to Pugh personally or politically, and was accompanied by another Detroit native and some other friends. We asked if both Detroiters were sure it was Pugh and they were absolute. The two Detroiters, well aware of the news surrounding Pugh, asked their friends to compare the man in the bar with Google images of Pugh to make doubly sure. All agreed it was him.
At this point you're wondering why there's no picture like the ones from Seattle and we have A Good Reason Why: The atmosphere was dark and not conducive for a proper creepshot, and our tipster didn't want to draw too much attention to Pugh. (That picture above is an old selfie from PughAndYou.com.)
As previously mentioned, Pugh apparently fled to Seattle after allegations of misconduct with a then-minor mentee in the councilman's mentoring program surfaced. Because of Pugh's absence, emergency manager/bankruptcy lawyer Kevyn Orr stripped him of his salary and duties. In recent council meetings, there has been talk of removing Pugh from office entirely.
Since then, the family of the mentee, which originally claimed to have salacious text messages between Pugh and the boy, requested authorities to suspend an investigation into the alleged misconduct. Through it all, there has been no word from Pugh, who didn't even show for the city's primary this week.
Thanks again to our tipster for helping us out! Any other anonymous Detroit tips can be sent to tips@jalopnik.com, or hit us up on Twitter at @aaronkfoley or @ryanfelton13.
AWOL Detroit Councilman Charles Pugh Is In NYC, Specifically Harlem