A former instructor at Brainerd High School arrested last year on charges of having sex with a student is the father of an 18-year-old charged in a slew of summer restaurant robberies, court records show.
The father and son, Steven Hughley and Steven Hughley Jr., are being represented by local attorney Jack Benson and both are set to appear in court on Nov. 11.
Benson didn’t want to comment on the details of either case Wednesday but said both men plan to fight their charges.
“They have both [pleaded] not guilty,” Benson said.
Hughley, 44, was arrested in February at his current job at the Silverdale Corrections Facility on charges of statutory rape by an authority figure.
Police reports accuse Hughley of sexual contact with a 17-year-old girl at Brainerd High over more than a year while he was teaching at the school. The girl’s mother was the one who notified police, reports show.
The girl told police the two had sex on school property, in a trailer behind the school, and that he took her to a hotel in East Ridge and to his house in Harrison. Their relationship continued after he resigned from his post at the school, police reports show.
“[She said] that the relationship started with text messages between each other which led to e-mails back and forth to each other,” records show.
In July, Hughley Jr. was picked up by police along with his cousin, Christopher Coleman, 21, and charged in the armed robberies of several restaurants, including Taco Bell, Zaxby’s, Papa John’s and some check-cashing locations over a period of two months.
Hughley and Hughley Jr. are free on bond.
Contact Joan Garrett at jgarrett@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6601.