White Boy Rick, the drug-dealing-child informant to the feds from the late 80s, is now suing the FBI agents and Detroit police.
Richard Wershe Jr., the young man who made history as the longest-serving nonviolent juvenile offender in Michigan history, served 32 years for his sentence for trafficking in 1987 when he was 17.
A movie about his life starring Matthew McConaughey showcased his life.
Wershe, now 52-years-old, filed his lawsuit asking for $100 million in damages insisting that he was coerced as a kid to snitch.
His attorneys at Ayad Law, PLLC released in a statement, “Having worked undercover for the FBI and Detroit Police starting as a child at the tender age of 14, Wershe is the youngest FBI informant in this history of this nation.”
In 1988, their client was sentenced to life in prison under Michigan’s “650-Lifer Law.” This anti-drug dealing law was a statute that basically mandated that if you were in possession of more than 650 grams of cocaine or heroin, you would be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The remarks continued, “The government used Wershe as a child from age 14 to 16, putting him amongst gangsters, killers, drug dealers and thrust him into the world of drug trafficking, and then all turned on him to cover up the illegal and embarrassing nature of their conduct.”
Wershe, despite the law he was sentenced under, was paroled in 2017. He was then turned over to U.S. Marshals and sent to Florida for a crime he committed in 2006 while locked up.
According to him, he and his sister and mom were involved with an illegal operation that dealt with stolen cars. He took the wrap so that his family members would not go down.
At a press conference on Tuesday, July 20, Wershe personalized his lawyer’s statement for the public on his lawsuit regarding his original case.
He said, “The justice system hasn’t been fair to me over the last 33 years. I’m hoping now that this is the last book, where I can close this chapter, go on with my life. But I think this needed to be done. I think the truth absolutely needed to be told. I think the people that did this to me need to be held accountable.
“I’m not blaming the people that are in office now. I’m not blaming the U.S. Attorney’s office that’s here now. I’m blaming the people from the past, the people that did it to me — the retired FBI agents, the retired (Detroit Police Department) officials, the retired U.S. attorney that released my grand jury testimony,” he concluded.
Wershe filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District. He was released from prison after serving over three decades in prison, compromising more than half of his life.
This story is developing.