"White Boy Rick" Wershe [To be Released July 20]

[PeterhuntPrincess]

Is there any way to get a petition started to help the guy out?

[DaveyM]

Is there any way to get a petition started to help the guy out?

There's a Facebook page where me and others post info and updates: https://www.facebook.com/freewhiteboyrickwershe

Here's a post from that group on how to help Ricky:
"

We are asking that everyone write to the Michigan Parole Board on Rick's behalf. It is very important to let them know that there are people out there that would like to see Rick released. If you don't know what to write, please just state that he was 17 years old when arrested and that he has served enough time. Please let anyone else know as this will really help Rick's cause. This is very important for Rick's possible release in Deecember. Please include his information - Rick Wershe. Prisoner ID# 192034. Thank you in advance. Here is the address:

Parole Board
Michigan Department of Corrections
P.O. Box 30003
Lansing, MI 48909"

Thanks!

[Drexciya68]

Federal agents and Detroit police used and paid Rick for info when he was a minor [[14 years old). After 23 years those involved are coming forward with the truth. There's been a huge cover-up. These are letters sent to the parole board in support of Ricks release:

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page 1 [[letter from ex Detroit narcotics officer) https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...95049953_n.jpg

[Drexciya68]

More info about Rick here: https://www.facebook.com/freewhiteboyrickwershe?fref=ts

[Islandman]

More info about Rick here: https://www.facebook.com/freewhiteboyrickwershe?fref=ts

Not to threadjack, but you're a fan of Drexciya eh?

[Drexciya68]

Not to threadjack, but you're a fan of Drexciya eh?

I sure am. R.I.P. James..

[Drexciya68]

Also a new website -> http://freerickwershe.com/Home_Page.html

[Meddle]

People still whining about this fool?

[Django]

Maybe he is a fool but I dont believe anyone should be locked up for 25+ years for being a fool, especially a fool patsy. Do you have any clue how fucked up our penal system is. I dont take it so lightly when someones life is taken and thrown into prison for BS like this, its a human life locked up so some prison builder and their benefactors can make money off of. If we are the land of the free, why do we have more ppl locked up than any other country?

[Django]

Wow, good story JVB. I didn't know he was so deep in it, or up in it as it may be. Somebody must still need him to stay locked up.
Another sad story from the war on drugs.

[JVB]

Wow, good story JVB. I didn't know he was so deep in it, or up in it as it may be. Somebody must still need him to stay locked up.
Another sad story from the war on drugs.

Let me clarify, when I say Coleman was laundering some of his drug money, I don't mean for White Boy Rick - I mean the Mayor had his own dirty money to launder. Rick was just one of several drug dealers in Detroit that had ties to the Mayor and some of his people in the DPD.

The Mayor and his people were getting kickbacks from most of the higher level drug dealing that was going on in the city, and it was that money that was being laundered. Kenneth Weiner was the Mayor's "Launderer in Chief", and he set up several shell companies and front businesses on behalf of the Mayor which were used to clean a lot of the dirty money coming in.

Don't get me wrong, Rick was close to the Mayor's niece obviously, but I seriously doubt he ever had any direct dealings with the Mayor. Rick was just another mid-level drug dealer, who happened to be white and have a catchy nickname. But everybody in the game knew they had to "render unto Caesar" if they wanted to stay in business. That's just how crime operated in the city under Coleman Young.

[stromberg2]

Wow, that's just stunning....not really!

Stromberg2

[Django]

Gotcha JVB.

Ive told this story before but ill do it again.

It was about 1980 and we had two new families move into our suburban neighborhood of Brighton. They bought houses right next to each other. They were both Detroit Police but had retired in their 40s, one under some strange circumstances involving a stabbing at Autorama at Cobo [[the cop had a mint Trans Am he would put in the show). The other was a drug cop and his son was in my 5th grade class, Ill call him Scott. I remember one day in class while the crack epidemic was taking over the heroin trade in Detroit we were talking about how bad drugs are for you. Scott piped up that his dad was a narcotics officer with the DPD and that his father had a kilo of heroin in his closet and he had seen it. The houses they bought were pretty damn nice for what a cop would be underpaid for. They say everybody has their price, especially when your risking your ass in a city, for a city that was going down the drain. The temptation is just too much sometimes. The markup of drug prices is often 1000% from the jungle to the streets and yes I said one thousand percent not one hundred.

[Drexciya68]

A story about Rick in today's Oakland Press -> http://www.theoaklandpress.com/artic...mode=fullstory

[Bad Brains]

They should free Rick, and imprison those who used the teenager as an informant.
Why is he in prison longer than those he helped put in prison that were far bigger "traffickers" than he was?

The war on drugs is a joke.

[Drexciya68]

They should free Rick, and imprison those who used the teenager as an informant.
Why is he in prison longer than those he helped put in prison that were far bigger "traffickers" than he was?

The war on drugs is a joke.

Exactly, Bad Brains [[great band by the way).. A lot of people have been trying to save their own asses over the years. Though a lot more of the truth is known now than back when they railroaded him in the 1980s. He's helped put more crooked and corrupt city officials/cops [[including the Chief) than anyone else I can come up with. He's saved lives with the info he has provided. They [[those at the top in Detroit) tired to murder Rick on more than one occasion before he was sent away for life. Even one of those hit men who was responsible for numerous murderers along with drug dealing has been released after he snitched others out. Nate "Boone" Craft.. a hired killer is out walking the streets while a kid who was used by the FEDs is serving a life sentence? As I mentioned already Ex top cop William Rice is not charged with drug dealing and other serious crimes and he had the nerve to speak against Rick's release at one of his parole hearings years ago?? The FEDs have been after Rice for decades so why was he allowed to lie at Rick's hearing?

https://www.facebook.com/freewhiteboyrickwershe

[Drexciya68]

An update on one of the crooked and corrupt cops who have lied about Rick for years. Decades ago Rick exposed Bill Rice's role in a murder cover up involving relatives of then Mayor Coleman Young to the FEDs. Rice has went out of his way to provide false info and flat out lies in an attempt to keep Rick Wershe locked up and quiet. Rice deserves no less than LIFE for the lives he's ruined. http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/21...ted-of-perjury

[CountrySquire]

Does anyone know the address of the house Rick lived in at 11 and Evergreen? I lived in that area in the late 70s, curious if it was nearby my house.

[Drexciya68]

Does anyone know the address of the house Rick lived in at 11 and Evergreen? I lived in that area in the late 70s, curious if it was nearby my house.

I will get the exact address from Rick in a couple days when he calls. It was one of the houses in the turnaround on Berkshire.

Btw - A new article about Rick from the Oakland Press http://www.theoaklandpress.com/artic...mode=fullstory

[Drexciya68]

Btw - Rick didn't live out there til the later 1980s. He grew up on the east side in the Harper/Dickerson area.

[DaveyM]

This Sunday, February 1st, Channel 4 News in Detroit will begin airing a series of investigative reports on Rick Wershe's case. The first part will air at 11pm after the Superbowl.
Part 1 - Will be Sunday night at 11pm
Part 2 - Wednesday night at 11 pm
Parts 3, 4, 5 - to be determined
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/l...-rick/31012636

[DaveyM]

“For anyone who lived in Detroit in the ’80s, the drug dealer known as White Boy Rick remains legend. But the true story of Rick’s epic rise and fall, as exhaustively reported by Evan Hughes, reads like a lost Elmore Leonard story. Essential, infuriating, wildly entertaining. Free Richard Wershe now!”
- Mark Binelli, Rolling Stone staff writer and author of Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis"
The Trials of White Boy Rick - https://atavist.com/stories/the-tria...hite-boy-rick/

[Meddle]

“For anyone who lived in Detroit in the ’80s, the drug dealer known as White Boy Rick remains legend.

Hardly. Mitch Ryder, Bob Seeger, Jimi Hendrix and many civic leaders are legends, not a common street punk.

[DaveyM]

Hardly. Mitch Ryder, Bob Seeger, Jimi Hendrix and many civic leaders are legends, not a common street punk.

Rick admits that he, at times, acted like a "punk" as a teenager. Just as many young teenagers do. But regardless of that, the media helped create the myth of "White Boy Rick" and many from the Detroit area who were around in the 1980s are still familiar with that nickname. Good or bad, I bet most have heard of "WBR" more than they have Mitch Ryder. It's that false image that is part of the reason why he's been locked up this long. That and Rick's involvement in exposing the crime of lowdown crooked cops like Gil Hill and others.

[DaveyM]

"Criminal defense attorney Steve Fishman wrote this column in response to a column by Deadline Detroit's Allan Lengel, who insisted that the Michigan Parole Board is committing a crime by keeping Richard "White Boy Rick" Wershe Jr. behind bars for 26 years. Wershe was convicted of cocaine trafficking as a teenager and was sentenced to life without parole under a law that mandated the unparolable sentence if caught with more than 650 grams of cocaine. The law was later changed and he was re-sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Fishman authored a letter to the administration of Gov. Jennifer Granholm on behalf of a group of people pushing for clemency for Wershe. Wershe was never a client, and Fishman did not know him while he was on the streets. Fishman said it was just the right thing to do to advocate for his release.

By Steve Fishman
To my knowledge, Rick Wershe is the only person in Michigan still serving a life sentence for possession of over 650 grams. Everyone else, including at least one of my clients who was also a teenager at the time of the crime, has received parole since the drug statute changed.
Those of us who are old enough can recall the media hoopla when a 17-year old white kid with the media-friendly nickname "White Boy Rick" was alleged to be the capo di tutti capi of all the drug lords in Detroit in the mid-to late 80s.
As a lawyer who represented many of the guys who were in fact the top dogs in the drug business in those days, the notion that a 17-year old kid - black, white, or purple - could have been the boss of those grown men is so ridiculous as to deserve no further comment. And to suggest, as the Parole Board spokesman did in the article, that Rick Wershe's situation is comparable to other lifers - most of them serving sentences for violent crimes - is an insult to our collective intelligence.
Given the number of people supporting parole for Rick Wershe, including police officers, federal agents, prosecutors, and lawyers, the only possible explanation for his continued incarceration is a lack of guts on the part of the Parole Board.
It is long past time for the Board to recognize, as so many people involved in law enforcement already have, that the time has come to grant him a parole." - http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...k#.VJNVpWYo7IU