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Um, we're here today
on a motion for relief

from judgement filed
by Mr. Wershe.

As both parties know,
the parties are not...

Being in prison the last 29 years-

is like being dead.

"Now based on my readings of...

The only connection
I have to the free world-

is this telephone.

You see your kids grow up-

but you have no part
of anything.

It's like living in
the ultimate purgatory.

"The case law
over the last decade

has demanded
that we treat juveniles

constitutionally different
than adults.

That difference requires us
to consider

the defendant's age
at the time when crime..."

Sitting here in front of the judge-

scared as hell-

I know this is the best chance
of getting my life back.

And I know everything rides
on what this judge is about to say.

Everyone knows who I am-

but no one knows the
real reason I'm in here.

The teenage drug dealer

nicknamed "White Boy Rick,"

was busted at age 17.

And has served 28 years
behind bars,

the longest ever in Michigan

for a non-violent juvenile.

You're not gonna
convince any judge

in this day and age

that somebody deserves life
for selling drugs.

How many of you have heard

about the drug problem
in our schools?

The only thing
that I legitimately remember

about the War on Drugs
in the '80s

when I was a child,

was seeing Nancy Reagan
on Diff'rent Strokes,

telling, you know, Gary Coleman,
"Just say no."

All drugs are dumb.

He was moving kilos.

When you're 17 years old
and you're moving kilos,

you know, you're at a status
of drug dealer

that most 17-year-olds
don't reach.

And I'll tell you
from what I can see

as a judge now,

the War on Drugs is over,

and drugs won.

Young Boys Incorporated,
originally, was the gang

that really institutionalized

and industrialized
the distribution of heroine.

Detroit's heroin market
gave way to cocaine

which quickly gave way
to crack cocaine.

Crack is a plague

of the inner cities in this country,
and that's been especially true in Detroit.

The city, literally,
right in front of your eyes

was falling apart.

It was chaos.

And nobody knew
how to handle it.

This chamber here holds

12 shotgun shells
and everything...

As part of a five-part series
on the crack problem,

I went on dozens and dozens
and dozens

of narcotics raids

with the No Crack Task Force.

It was crazy.

I mean, today, you probably
wouldn't get away with that.

Agents say
the gang was well armed.

In many of the homes,
they found assault weapons.

It was very, very violent.

We had officers shot,

uh, a couple of them killed.

And I was right
in the middle of it.

I was on, uh,
the drug squad for the FBI.

But in the course
of some of these raids,

they discovered a cache
of videotapes.

And this is one
of the drug homes

owned by the Chambers Brothers,

the notorious drug gang.

Money, money, money!

We're rich, goddamn it!

A hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. Cash.

They go through the homes.

The faucets, 24 karat gold.

And this was amazing stuff.

Once upon a time,

drug dealers was truly idolized.

They had all the man toys
that they wanted.

Cars, planes, housing,

weapons.

The money was just unlimited.

And it becomes a problem

because it's a cash business.

throw these ones away, man,

since we got $500,000?

What do you do
with all that cash?

I tell you what we can do,

we can give it to the poor.

That's exactly what I said, too,

we'll just donate those
to the poor.

It seemed like every week,

a new drug gang emerged.

The Chambers Brothers,

Best Friends,

Young Boys Incorporated,
Maserati Rick,

Johnny Curry and Leo Curry

had started a drug organization.

Say, for instance,
I got a key of cocaine,

and two or three keys
of cocaine.

You might have
a hundred bales of weed.

I make more off this cocaine

than you do off the weed
with less headaches.

That's how I got into that game.

When we talk
about Young Boys Incorporated,

or the Chambers Brothers,

there's not one single
white person involved

in any of those gangs.

During the coverage
of the Chambers Brothers,

I had a conversation
with a source or sources

who said, "You know,
there's this kid

who's dealing cocaine.

Richard Wershe, Jr. He's 17.

And he's white,

in a largely
black-dominated world.

And his nickname
is "White Boy Rick."

The teenage drug dealer

nicknamed "White Boy Rick."

His name is Richard Wershe, Jr.

One of the things
you don't wanna do

if you're a criminal,

I would advise you
never to get a nickname

and especially,
a really catchy nickname.

I just remember
the name and the face.

I recall me and my friends
joking around

when we were 16, 17
in the suburbs,

and someone would be
dealing weed out of his car

and we joked,
"Oh, who do you think you are,

White Boy Rick?"

In the 1990s,

when I first entered
the federal prison system,

you hear about all
the different street legends

from the different cities.

I, I was mainly
on the East Coast,

but one of the guys,

you know, that there
was a lot of talk about,

was White Boy Rick.

And, to me, I was
kinda mesmerized, because,

you know, being
a white drug dealer myself,

in the suburbs and in colleges,

I was like,
"Who was this white kid

you know, that was supposedly
running all these black gangs

and running
the city of Detroit?"

At that time,

I really didn't know anything
about White Boy Rick.

I didn't know
who Rick Wershe was.

I just knew
there was this caricature,

almost like
a comic book character

being splashed across
the newspapers all the time.

He had to be at least 15,
16 years old when I met him.

But he was smart.

He was socializing
and doing business

with the biggest drug dealers
in Detroit.

We all bought motorcycles
together,

rolled up to see my brother
in prison together.

It became a very iconic moniker.

It has been name-dropped
in Kid Rock songs.

Johnny Curry
would buy him a mink coat.

They'd walk around
with their twin mink coats.

To integrate like he did,

I mean, that's not...
Not everyone can do that.

And my point is,
he wasn't a poser.

That's who he was.

He was a product
of his environment.

He was a white kid
that was brought up

his... basically, his whole life
around all black people.

A lot of the DPD

that were working in the Detroit
drug scene at that time,

knew Rick was a race traitor.

They did not like the fact
that he talked black,

that he acted black,

that he dated black women,

and definitely didn't like
14 to 15-year-old kids

rolling around in BMWs,

and flashing cash wads

that equal more
than their entire paycheck

for the whole year.

Half million a week.

Two million dollars a month.

It bred a lot of resent.

- Dispatch 8.

There were sections
of the city in the mid '80s

that were war zones.

This drug operation

was so heavily-fortified,

that police could not
get through the front door.

- Calling in.

In Detroit in the 1980s,

there were dozens upon dozens

of proficient,
professional killers.

The most menacing,

the most feared,

was without question,
Nate "Boone" Craft.

In the '80s,

I was a hitman

that worked for many different
drug lords and kingpin.

Even some that weren't even
in this country.

there are direct links now

between gangs
and Colombian drug dealers.

They were hiring me to do hits.

I was, uh, involved
with about 30 murders.

I was responsible
for almost 30 murders.

They paid 50,000 and up.

And I was looking to gain.

Anything that was 50,000,

I'll always will be,
"Come on with it.

What do you want?
The guy's head?

You want his arm?
You want his private part?"

of the Detroit Police
Department's

Homicide Division.

Crack cocaine changed
the whole complexion

of homicide cases
in the city of Detroit.

We were actually having
almost 800 homicides per year.

Probably 85%
was due in some part

to the narcotics trade.

Now this is what happens to you

when you become a gangster,
a hitman, or whatever.

You get shot up.

Either you didn't pay
what you owe me,

or jealousy takes over.

Leg, tore up.

I had to walk with a cane.

AK. I can't even move my hands.

Shotgun blast.

They hit me with everything,
nine in the back.

I'm like the Grim Reaper.

If you make my list,
I'm coming for you,

whether you're good or bad.

White people have left this city
in record numbers.

It goes from almost
two million people,

now it's down
to a million people.

Today, we're probably down

to 600,000 people.

Rick grew up
on the east side of Detroit

which is, uh, notoriously
a very tough, tough area.

We were very normal.

We were a normal family
coming up.

My grandparents
lived across the street from us.

And it was my brother,
and my dad and I, and...

Rick's father and I
divorced when Rick was 5.

And they stayed with him

at the house
which I wasn't happy about.

But they wanted to be there,

so I left them.

It went, you know, from a nice,

working class neighborhood

regardless of race or color,

to just horrible.

Like, there was crack houses

across the street
from our house.

My grandmother, I remember her
getting robbed for her purse

in her own driveway.

I mean, it was bad.

He played
Little League Baseball.

He was the star
of his league baseball team,

a pitcher.

Eventually, he went out

and spent his eighth-grade year
out in the suburbs

in Macomb County with his mom.

He did really well out there.

He got good grades,
he was popular in the school.

But he was seeing his father
on occasion,

and he decided
to go back with him.

Richard Sr. was a gun dealer...

street hustler.

And the joke became, you know,

that there was White Dad Rick,
and White Boy Rick.

Rick himself,
really idolized his father,

and spent most of his childhood
at his father's side.

To the point
where he was kinda known

in those gun shows

when he was 11,
12, 13 years old,

as like one of the best salesmen

at those gun shows.

It was an adventurous life.

I mean,
it was cowboys and Indians

in Detroit at that time.

And he just got caught up in it.

[Se Everything that I knew,

you know, that was like
the glamorized version

of White Boy Rick.

But once I started talking
to him,

and researching the case
with all the documents

and newspaper articles
and court records,

I found a very different
story emerged.

One out of every five people

who try cocaine get hooked.

But that's not your problem.

- Or is it?

What the legislators tried to do

was make the law so harsh

that people would think twice

before getting
into the drug trade.

Now we're gonna pass the statute

that provides
for mandatory life.

Anybody who's in possession

of over 650 grams of cocaine,

they got convicted,
they got mandatory life.

Hundreds of people
were prosecuted

underneath the 650 Law,

including Tim Allen,

the actor in Hollywood.

Well, historically, penalty
has never been a factor

in stopping a crime
from occurring.

As long as there's enough money
in the crime,

the penalty isn't gonna make

a big difference.

There was a lot of money
to be made,

and a lot of people
tried to make money.

And I represented
quite a few of them.

That kind of money
began to corrupt everything.

It corrupted the government,

it corrupted the police.

There can be no progress
in the suburbs

unless there's progress
in the city.

Yeah!

Coleman Young is the
most powerful politician

in the history of Detroit.

Coleman Young was a machine.

And his niece was Cathy Volsan,

and she was married
to Johnny Curry,

one of the biggest drug dealers
in Detroit.

My wife's uncle
was Mayor Coleman Young.

There was a protective detail

that Coleman Young
wanted placed on Cathy Volsan

knowing full well
that she was married

and living with all
these drug dealers.

And then she heard
about the Curry Brothers

and what we was into
in our life,

so we started dating.

And then,
the next thing you know,

we was married.

I just find it crazy

that he had a protection detail

of police officers

guarding his drug dealer niece.

Including Jimmy Harris,

who was Mayor Coleman Young's
head of security.

They were specifically
instructed

not to intervene
in this interactions

and in these transactions.

One time, I got picked up by,
uh, one of the police officers.

He knew I had something
in the car.

He's seen it on the backseat.

He said, "Go ahead
and go about your way.

You want me to escort you in
or something like that?"

So, I was fine.

'Cause they really never
messed with me too tough.

Their only job

was to follow around Cathy Curry

and prevent her from harm.

It was a slippery slope,

I think, for...
for these people.

They went downhill,
uh, very, very fast.

It was wide open
for greedy people.

And cops is just greedy
as we are.

If they got debts and so forth,

they're gonna turn to crooks.

Everybody, every police officer,

down at 1300 was crooked.

When I was down there,

I walked there like...

Shit, I did bad as myself.

Johnny Curry,

because of his marriage
to Cathy Curry,

had a direct line to Gil Hill,

who, at the time, was

the Detroit Police Department's
head of the Homicide Division.

Gil Hill had bigger aspirations.

He had, uh, become
uh, a movie actor.

Was in this wildly popular
Eddie Murphy movie,

Beverly Hills Cop,
where he played the boss

of Eddie Murphy in the movie.

Inspector T., how you doing?

Where the you've been, Foley?

In Detroit,
everybody knew Gil Hill,

they wanted to talk to Gil Hill
and be around Gil Hill.

He was probably
the biggest celebrity

in the city of Detroit
at the time.

Gil Hill, to me, was a lot more

than the Beverly Hills Cop

that you see on TV.

He actually trained me.

He actually taught me
the ins and outs

of investigations
and interrogations.

Was Gil Hill
affiliated with the drug world?

Affiliated?

Yeah, he was affiliated.

He basically got us
to stay away from certain people

that he wanted to protect.

He'd tell us, "Hey, man,
don't be hitting this.

Don't do this and that.

'Cause if you made our list,

you was gonna be killed."

I have nothing bad
to say about Gil Hill.

He wanted homicides closed.

And he wanted
to get some resolve

to the brutality
of taking another person's life.

So you're telling me
that the head of homicide came to you-

and asked who you've got on
your hit list?

Yeah.

Gil.

As Gil would say,

"Anybody else on your list?
I don't give a fuck."

That's not the Gil Hill
that I know.

That doesn't mean
that, of course,

people don't have dark sides.

'Cause I, too, believe
that all people have dark sides.

So we would have
to listen to Gil

because he gonna do us
a favor later.

In order for us
to get favors from him,

we got to do favors
for him as well,

one hand washes the other.

He was a guy
with quite a bit of cache.

He had, he had his eyes set
on the mayor's office himself.

I think he viewed himself

as Coleman Young's successor.

One of the nation's
best-known mayors,

Coleman Young of Detroit,

is getting a kind of
national attention these days

that no politician wants.

Coleman Young was
a notoriously corrupt mayor

that never got convicted
or indicted.

The latest involves charges

that his police chief

stole from a fund set up
for undercover drug buys.

And who the do you think you are

to come in here
and cross-examine me?

He drew enormous animosity

from a number of white residents

who blamed him
for great social ills.

And I know a number of people
including a number of federal

and local
law enforcement figures

that thought that he was steeped

totally in corruption.

I don't buy that.

I think there are people
around him were.

So, lots of members
of federal law enforcement

had a giant agenda
to go get Coleman Young.

And try to tie parts
of his administration

into the Curry organization.

Johnny and Leo Curry
were convicted

and did a plea agreement
for 20 years.

I did 14 years.

I got a 20-year sentence,
I did 14, and came out.

And one day, I get a tip

that they were gonna raid
Cathy Volsan-Curry's townhouse.

The Feds go in there,

and guess who's in there,

in bed with Cathy Volsan-Curry?

Richard Wershe, Jr.

Imagine my editors asking me,

"What have you got going today?"

I said, "Well,

an alleged notorious
17-year-old drug dealer

was caught in a raid,

sleeping with the niece
of the mayor

on a Friday afternoon."

That's a bad day
for the Mayor's Office.

You had race, you had drugs,

you had sex,
you had political intrigue,

you had police corruption.

So now, Rick Wershe
is dating Coleman Young's niece.

And that's a problem
for Coleman Young.

And it becomes a problem
for Rick Wershe.

Wershe was busted

for possessing eight kilos
of cocaine.

The charge which now has him
serving a life sentence.

You're not trying
to tell me that...

you're an angel,

that you never did
anything wrong, right?

I've been involved
in wrongdoing,

but I don't feel I did anything
to receive a life sentence.

The 650-Lifer Law

that, uh, Wershe
was convicted under,

uh, was repealed in 1998.

So the Supreme Court
of the State of Michigan said,

"That constitutes cruel
and unusual punishment,

so you can't sentence people
to life without parole

for a non-violent crime.

But to be incarcerated
for 28 years,

he's now a grandfather.

And everybody kinda recognized

it was a fool's errand
from the beginning.

Just like almost all
tough on crime things

turned out to be
a fool's errand.

Until the law was changed,
I don't think they caught one,

not one large-scale drug dealer.

Were you ever a cocaine kingpin?

And then in the press,
they come out and say,

"Drug kingpin White Boy Rick."

Kingpin of what?

Who?

He didn't have a drug gang,

he didn't have crack houses.

- You ever kill anyone?
- No.

- Ever ordered anyone killed?
- No.

I'm sorry to tell you,

that the legend
of White Boy Rick

is just not true.

Why would a juvenile,
non-violent drug offender

be kept in prison
beyond 29 years?

I did way more than he
could possibly ever had done

to get that kind of a sentence.

Third world countries
don't incarcerate like this.

How does a 16
or 17-year-old kid,

Richard Wershe, Jr.,

how does he get connected
to the Curry family?

Here's the truth.

At the age of 14,
I was recruited by the FBI-

to become an informant.

It's a convoluted story.

So when I met, uh,
Richard Wershe, Sr.,

he had been opened up
as an informant

and operated, uh,
for a period of time

by two other agents.

He was a gun dealer,
uh, he was an entrepreneur.

There was no end
to what he was doing.

If he was in one thing,

he was always dabbling
in the next.

But he was very brilliant,

he invented a lot of things.

And I think he probably held
more patents

than anyone
in the state of Michigan.

I think he also had a business,

where he would illegally
sell guns on the black market.

And help people get permits.

He even sold silencers.

He could get you anything.
He could get you grenades.

And then, kind of played
both ends of the game,

he would then divulge

who he was selling
these guns to, to the FBI.

At the top of the list
of their targets

is Johnny Curry
and the Curry gang.

So the first time
I met Wershe, Sr.

Uh, it was at a McDonald's
on the west side of Detroit.

And, uh, when I walked
into the restaurant,

and after introductions
were made,

I noticed, uh, he's got
this young kid with him.

It appeared to me
to be 15 or so.

And when we got talking about

the Curry, uh,
drug investigation,

I noticed the father
would defer to the son.

My dad didn't really
know who these people were.

And pretty soon,
it became apparent to me

that really, the kid is somehow

the real source
of the information.

And I kind of interjected
and told them who they were-

and recognized them from
the neighborhood.

I just didn't feel comfortable
with it.

I didn't think
it was appropriate.

But I wanted to keep
the channels

of communication open.

I believe Richard
himself, quickly realized

that the target for this
was big game.

He was using his son
to get paid.

It's not the role of a father
to do something like that.

And this was something
that I think

started off as one thing,

and ended as another thing.

It started off where they would,
you know, sometimes pick Rick up

and they drive him
through the neighborhood.

And they say, "Rick, tell us
who this guy is.

Tell us what that spot is.
What's that spot?"

So here's this 14-year-old kid

getting paid money
to inform on narcotics dealers

in the city of Detroit.

In the short time he was
an informant for the police,

he collected about $35,000
from law enforcement.

I went shopping, I bought stuff.

I bought a car when I was
15 years old.

It's funny to me how people
always talk about

what criminals will do
to make a dollar.

But, you know,
on the same regard,

you got to look
at what the FBI will do

to make an arrest.

He was actually instructed

to infiltrate
the Curry Boys gang.

And start hanging out
with the Currys,

pretending that you wanna
learn the drug game

to start making controlled buys.

We had started letting him do
little errands

and then he started knowing
a few people that...

you figured that
when a white boy sells it,

the dope is good or whatever.

You know, so he started
doing his thing.

He didn't play
a really major role.

Nobody would mess
with him, though,

because they knew
he was coming from us, so.

You know,
within a couple of months,

Rick is right by
Johnny Curry's side.

And has become a protégé
of Johnny Curry's.

I don't think anybody realized

that Rick would be able
to do that.

Let alone, do it so quickly.

And were they able
to make any arrests

out of your information?

Oh, yeah. Numerous.

Go, go, go!

- Police!

When Rick would say,

"Hey, the dope's coming
to this house,"

the dope would come
to that house.

The police would make a raid,

they would confiscate
the drugs and money,

and, uh,
they would be successful.

Yeah I believe in one time-

in '85 I think it's-

eleven or thirteen in one day.

You know, the whole business

of operating informants,

it's a cat and mouse game.

And just because somebody
has an informant

designated as the handler
for the informant,

doesn't preclude that informant

from being utilized
by other agencies,

Such as the Detroit
Police Department.

Uh, we had DEA involved,
the FBI involved.

We had United States Customs,

Michigan State Police,

we had Detroit Police.

That's actually
what was going on.

The Detroit Police
Department officers

were also using, uh, this kid

in undercover capacity.

Uh, using him to make buys,
undercover buys.

He's going
in unmarked police cars,

uh, at night, with the police.

Driving around,
identifying people

at certain clubs.

And he ain't getting home
till three in the morning.

And he's got to wake up at00
to go to school.

I mean they weren't
saying, "Oh, quit school."

But they were saying-

you know,
"we need you to do this."

And I'd say
"well I've got school tomorrow."

And they said
"so what, we still" -

you know,
"go down to this club for us."

"You're wasting too much time
in Math class.

You need to be
on the street for us,

getting us information."

At some point,

as the fall progressed in 1984,

Johnny Curry
was given information

that Rick Wershe
was an informant.

Rick Wershe was giving
the Feds information

and people were getting busted.

So they knew somebody
was, was leaking information,

and they would have meetings,

talking about who
the informant might be.

There were a lot
of people on the street

that believed that Johnny Curry
ordered Rick Wershe's murder.

So I remember being at the home

that my boyfriend and I shared,

and he said,
"Here comes your dad."

And I said,
"Tell him I'm not here."

And I was standing
in the bedroom

listening to him talk to my dad
at the front door

and my dad said,

"Tell her,
her brother's been shot."

And right then,
I fell to the floor.

I got in the car with my dad
and we went to the hospital.

Rick was with a, uh,
another Curry lieutenant,

who was a couple years
older than him.

We were in the
house Approximately five minutes.

We were both
skipping school that day.

He went upstairs.

And after a couple of minutes,

says, "Hey, Rick.
Come over here.

Come to the stairs."

As soon as I hit the top of the stairs

he comes out of the bedroom,
shoots me in the stomach.

He was shot at close range

with a .357 magnum.

Went in the front, out the back,

blew his large intestine
in half.

I believe I rolled down the stairs.

I was asking them to call 911.
He wouldn't call 911-

he was in a panic.

By the grace of God his
girlfriend walked in the house.

And she's the one
that called 911.

The guy that shot me-his older brother and
a friend of his were putting me in the car.

I don't know if they were going to take me to
a hospital or take me somewhere and dump me.

Finally an ambulance showed up
and blocked them off and-

told them to give me
to them and-

basically that ambulance ride
saved my life.

I had nothing to do
with his getting shot.

If an agent said it
or whoever said it,

a police officer,
whoever said it,

they're way out of order, then.

Rick's family
and the task force all arrived

in the waiting room
of the hospital.

There's a physical altercation

between Richard
and the FBI handlers.

Richard blames them
for getting his son shot

and, at that time,
thinking he might die.

The task force were kind of
huddled by the snack machines.

They had realized
that if he died,

the fact that they had been
using a 14-year-old kid

to infiltrate druggings

was gonna come to the surface

and it would be a scandal
of all scandals.

The surgeon, Dr. Bowles,

that performed surgery
and saved Rick's life

sat next to his bedside.

I believe it was for ten
or twelve hours.

Because he didn't think
he was gonna make it.

But he did, thank god.

I really honestly believe
this is a turning point.

Because he could've
pumped the brakes.

He could've said,
"You know what? This is crazy.

We almost got this kid killed.

We need to stop everything
right now

and just do this, you know,
by the book."

But, instead,

members of that task force
came with a conclusion

this would increase
his credibility.

The police told me to
say the shooting was an acident-

because it was the best way to
sweep it under the rug-

and I could continue to work for
them if I said it was an accident.

We're gonna push it
into high gear.

We're gonna send him
back in to the Curry gang

and if there was any belief

that he was an informant before,

that belief was gonna go
out the window

because if he was a snitch,

Johnny Curry would be
in handcuffs right now.

So, by the mere fact
of him going back

to his old neighborhood,

it built up his reputation
as a drug dealer,

uh, not an informant.

It almost helped him
in that regard.

During Rick's recovery,

Johnny Curry called him
and, you know, said,

"Where have you been?
What's going on?"

Eventually, Rick met him

and was kinda like
confronted him.

"You thought I was an informant.

You had me shot."

And Johnny denied it.

Now, he might've mentioned it.

I don't know.

I had nothing to do with it.

But from that point forward,

Rick was in tighter than ever.

And we're live

from Caesars Palace
in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Where Top Rank presents
World Championship Boxing.

Johnny Curry and his entourage

had gone to Las Vegas
to the Hearns-Hagler fight.

Fighting out
of Detroit, Michigan...

Tommy Hearns who was
Detroit's favorite son

in the boxing game at that time,

was facing off against
"Marvelous" Marvin Hagler.

And all of the major
urban drug dealers of Detroit

went to the fight.

And this was
the golden era of boxing.

The Tommy Hearns-
Marvin Hagler fight

was all anybody
was talking about in sports.

Tommy Hearns grew up
and socialized

with a lot of the black
drug dealers in the era.

And the kind of joke was,

last guy in Detroit
turn off the lights.

I was asked to go out there and-

get information about some
people that were-

involved in the drug trade-

and their corrections and-

how the drugs were coming in
and-

just basically as much intel as
I could from out there.

I was given a fake ID.

I was 15 at the time-the ID
made me 21 years old.

So, they gave him money,
they gave him false ID,

and they set him up in a casino.

This is insanity.

There's an FBI
report detailing that and it shows-

I think they gave me-

like $1,500-

on a receipt and then I think
they gave me like another-

thousand or 1,500 bucks for
pocket money.

While they're at the fight,

Johnny Curry and his entourage's
reservations and fight tickets

mysteriously disappear.

Or maybe disappear
is the wrong word.

They never really existed
to start.

Johnny had reached out
to a member of his crew

by a guy of a name of Leon Lucas

and him and Johnny
had kinda gotten into a beef

over drugs and money

that had been
confiscated in a raid.

Johnny Curry
held him responsible

for the drugs and money.

And Leon said, "Let me start

to try to make it up for you.

I will provide you
hotel arrangements

and tickets
for the Hagler-Hearns fight.

Now, he assured Johnny Curry

that it would all
be taken care of.

Well, when Curry
and his posse got out there,

nothing was handled,
nothing was taken care of.

And when he got back to Detroit,

some of his lieutenants

not at the direction
of Johnny Curry himself,

but some of his lieutenants

went over to Leon Lucas' house
in an effort to intimidate him.

What those individuals
that went there decided to do

was to shoot the place up
in a drive-by shooting.

Unfortunately, for them,

Leon Lucas isn't there.

And in the process,

Leon's nephew, Damion Lucas,
who was 13-years old,

and was living with him,

was shot and killed.

And this becomes
a very hot topic

in law enforcement.

On the news,

"13-year-old Killed
in Drive-by."

You know, I heard Johnny Curry,

uh, on wiretaps.

Uh, shortly after we got
the authority to tap his phone.

And he was lamenting,
whoever he was talking with,

that, "You know, those guys

shouldn't have gone over there.

I told them don't go
over there."

He was sorry that this whole
thing had taken place.

Probably because it was
bringing a lot of heat

on him, uh,
and his drug organization.

Rick Wershe comes back
into play in this whole story.

And that Rick says

he was, uh, listening in on
a phone conversation

over a speakerphone,

and he heard Johnny Curry
talking to Gil Hill.

And that's when I found out that Gil Hill was
responsible for covering up the kid's murder.

Johnny placed a call to Gil, put
it on speaker-

we were riding around in
Johnny's BMW.

Basically Gil told him
everything that was going on, and-

you know-that he had it under
control, and that he would be in touch-

not to worry about anything.

He had already been to meet with
Gil and-

he said he gave Gil ten grand to
cover up the kid's murder.

This information made him

incredibly dangerous
to a lot of people.

Johnny Curry told this to me

while he was incarcerated

at the Texarkana
Federal Correctional Facility

in Texas.

So, ultimately, what happened

is the, uh,
Detroit Police Department,

under the direction of Gil Hill,

uh, framed, basically,
an innocent man, LaKeas Davis.

I had information.

Part of it was
from Richard Wershe, Jr.,

and part it was from
the wiretaps that we had

that strongly suggested

that they had the wrong guy
locked up.

And he's facing a life term.

Well, sometime he had tell us

to put the gun
in somebody's car.

One of our enemies.

And then he had the police
pull up on them

and said, "Wait, wait.

Is that a gun hanging out
on your seat?"

Well, the people don't know
that we just slipped the gun

in their car.

Same way we did
with a pot of drugs.

He used to tell us to set
people up with drug bust too.

That's the way they get busses.

Subsequently, I was ordered

by my special agent in charge

to gather all
of the information that we had

with regards to
the Damion Lucas murder

and take it directly
to Chief Hart

of the Detroit
Police Department.

I did so and nothing
ever occurred.

To this day, it's still
an open investigation.

In fact, LaKeas Davis
remained in jail

was facing a trial.

And so I made sure
Davis' defense attorney

got the information
that he needed

to get him exonerated.

Ultimately, that resulted
in me being subpoenaed

to state court.

And where demands were met on me

to reveal the source
of the information.

Well, it became
very touch-and-go

because there would be
extreme retaliation

against the Wershe family.

And so I refused to do it.

And, um, I was threatened
with contempt of court.

Ultimately, they dismissed
the case against LaKeas Davis

and they freed him
at that point.

And Gil Hill was investigated

for his role
in taking a possible payoff

and possibly
burying these charges.

He was never charged.

And when Gil Hill ran for mayor,
this case came up

and was a detriment
to his campaign.

At that point, I didn't realize
to, uh, what extent

the corruption had spread

throughout
the police department.

When we did the raid
on Cathy Volsan-Curry's house

which was in June of 1987,

we found a laminated card
exactly like this one,

holding the personal
and confidential information

from Gil Hill and Jimmy Harris

which ended up being

the beginning of all the rumors

that we had heard

with regards to
the funneling of information

from the Detroit
Police Department

to the Curry organization.

So was that uncommon for Cathy
to have that kind of access?

She had access
to anything she wanted.

Like what?

Police reports,
surveillance reports,

whatever you wanted.

On Johnny?

Johnny, myself,

other people
who needed this stuff.

So, if she said
to Sgt. Jimmy Harris,

"I need to know what
the narcotics cops are doing

on Rick, on Johnny,
on anybody else,"

he would flip them to her?

No problem.

The matter
of the Damion Lucas murder

was never resolved.

I knew who did it

and, but, uh, proving it
is something else.

Truthfully I wish I never woulda got
roped into the Damion Lucas thing, because-

I didn't know 30 years later it
would still be affecting my life.

Well, I was, uh, told
to kill White Boy Rick.

We heard that he was telling.

So, they say,
"We gotta kill that white boy."

My career is finished.

But I promise you,
I won't go down alone.

I know after he did, uh,

Beverly Hill Cops and all that,

he was trying to stay away
from everybody.

But he would meet you somewhere
as long as he feel he was safe.

Like he would meet you out
at The Island in Waterfront.

But, yeah, uh...

He said that basically,
he wants us to make sure

that we kill White Boy Rick.

Make sure that boy is dead.

But we gotta make sure that
it don't lead back to no one.

I said, "Well, you know me.

All my hits don't lead back
to no one."

Rick had got in deeper

and had risen higher

than anyone ever thought
he could.

At some point these guys said-

sooner or later something's
going to go bad-

and we're going to be held
accountable.

They don't debrief him.

They don't send him
to a boarding school

where he can get over

what they've just
subjected him to.

They turn him loose
on the streets.

It wasn't like they ever said-

"Rick, stop selling drugs."

"Rick, stop buying drugs."

One day they just never called
again-

and that's how we broke ties.

He wasn't gonna go
back to school.

He knew the drug trade.

So, he became a drug dealer.

I became addicted to
the lifestyle.

I became addicted to the money.

I became addicted to the women.

I became addicted to that life.

The only difference was,

you know, he wasn't getting
a government stipend.

They had gleaned enough
information and intelligence

from him regarding
the Curry gang

that the indictment
was on the horizon.

The indictment would drop
within a couple months.

Rick will tell you that

it wasn't the smartest thing
to do, to date the wife

of a man you put in prison
or help put in prison.

Uh, but it happened.

I still wouldn't hold nothing
against that.

She was getting high.
What can you say, so...

I was a 17 year old
kid-I was having fun.

To be honest, dating her back
then was like-

dating a movie star or
something.

I remember one time,
back in those days,

I had a '63 black
Corvette convertible

with red interior.

And I'm driving it downtown.

Who comes driving by?

Rick Wershe and his friends.

And I forget what kind of car

but it was relatively
new and nice.

"Hey, Chris. What's going on?"

- You speed off.

He was enjoying
the celebrity moment.

He was a kid.

And he was famous for all
the wrong reasons

but he was living the life.

But I knew that was
White Boy Rick's ride.

So we followed him.

I speeded up
trying to get to him.

Me and Roy were sitting
at a stoplight in a car-

and I happened to look over my
shoulder and I seen a van pulling up.

And I saw the door sliding-

it was like cracked open.

And I told Roy, I said, "Roy,
run the light!"

We stopped.
That side door pulled open.

Who's siting in the chair?

"Man, hand me
another gun," I said.

I think we better reach
up in the...

By that time,
they had speeded off.

I mean they got shots
off-the car was hit.

That's the only reason why
he was still alive.

That MAC jammed on us.

I had friends that were
murdered.

To be honest, you're a kid and
you don't realize-

everyday that you were playing
with fire-

that you could walk out your
door one day and your life would be over.

And in that period of time,

he became what is known
as a "wait man."

As a wait man,
he had a line of credit

with some drug importers
in Miami.

He brought a lot of drugs
into Detroit

in a very short period of time.

He was not a drug dealer
for very long,

but he was nowhere near
the big-time drug dealers.

From a scale to one to ten,

I'm a ten,
I'd say he was about a two.

Rick was nowhere near me.

Guys like the Chambers
or guys like the Currys

they controlled whole sections
of the city.

Rick didn't control anything.

I used to say,
"Where did they...

Where is they getting
this stuff from?

I guess this Chris Hansen guy.
I don't know."

I never set out
to make Rick look like

a bigger drug dealer
than he was.

Were there some exaggerations?

Perhaps.

There were seeds of truth

to what they were saying.

He was socializing with all
of the major players,

so it was hard for the media
to divorce that.

You know, whether he was
a drug kingpin,

a drug lord, a drug prince,
a drug prodigy,

he was a 17-year-old kid
dealing multi-kilos of dope

and very few adults do that.

Rick couldn't deal
with a lot of guys...

A lot of people
that I've dealt with,

Rick couldn't even see them.

Johnny and his brother,

and his people,
they were grown men.

These are grown men.

And this was a kid.
That's the difference.

A 17-year-old white kid?

It was impossible for him
to have been

what people have pretended
that he was.

It wasn't like I went
out and said-

I want to become this big drug
dealer and-

want everyone in the state of
Michigan to know me.

I was led down this path by law
enforcement.

I think about every day if I
would have walked away.

I was a kid. I was stupid.

So, when you look at it
at the end of the day,

you know, law enforcement

created, almost
a perfect criminal.

And law enforcement
created the perfect persona,

a perfect character
for the local news,

for the local media,
and they ate it up.

I covered it a lot.

Rick will say
I had him on TV every day.

Obviously, that's not true.

He's just saying that
to make a point.

They convicted me
through the media,

through the papers.

I was the public enemy
number one

and they said stuff
that was totally untrue.

Were there stories about him
ordering hits on people

that weren't true
floating around?

Absolutely. I heard them.

But they never
prosecuted him for it.

My grandfather who was
a judge in Detroit

at the time of Mr. Wershe's case

had presided over his case
for a brief period of time.

And he calls him,
"Worse than a mass murderer,"

and gave him
a one-million-dollar bond.

It was the highest bond
my grandfather had ever set

for any defendant.

If you have so much evidence

that he's been involved
in a drug hit,

bring a case.

If not,
rumors don't count in court.

On May 23rd, 1987,

Rick Wershe and a man
named Roy Grissom

were arrested driving
down Hampshire near Dickerson.

It ended with his arrest

which is kind of
an interesting story

because it was probably a setup.

Rick, at this point,
has hooked up

with two Colombian
wholesale cocaine dealers

in Miami.

They would send kilos up
to Detroit in trailers.

He got a shipment. I believe,
it was an 18-kilo shipment.

They drop off ten kilos
of cocaine to a customer

and they have a pile of cash
in the car.

And they passed a police car

that was just, um,
routine traffic duty.

And I believe he actually waved
at the police officer

because he knew him.

They're driving home.
They get pulled over.

Allegedly for going through
a stop sign.

At this point,

there's a bunch of people
on the porch

including Rick's sister, Dawn.

And we watched it all unfold.

He said, "Okay, guys,
what's going on?"

And they said,
"You're under arrest."

And he said, "For what?"

And they said,
"Possession of drugs."

And he told them,
"I don't have any drugs."

And they said they were
in the car.

He said, "Search it."

One of the police officers
reaches into the back of the car

and pulls out a bag
with the cash.

So my dad ran out there
and grabbed the bag of money.

Officers say a tussle started.

A fight almost between Wershe,
Grissom, and the officers.

Investigators say
that Wershe took off running.

About 25 minutes,
a half-hour later,

the police find him

and they roughed him up
pretty good.

To the point where he had
to go to the hospital.

So, the next three
or four hours,

the police are combing
the neighborhood

looking for drugs.

They got an anonymous tip.

Later, more police arrived

and eventually they found

a box containing
eight kilos of cocaine

under this back porch,
a block away

from the traffic stop.

I was responsible for those drugs. I had
to pay the people in Miami for those drugs.

Rick believes
that it was a setup.

That they were watching him

and they knew
he would have drugs or money.

And they say that when he
ran out of the car,

he hid the cocaine
underneath a porch

and continued to run away.

And he's charged
with that crime.

The attorney that was
representing him at the time

was an attorney
by the name of William Bufalino.

And he brought motions
to suppress the evidence.

Shortly thereafter,

Coleman Young's niece told Rick,

"Everything will be okay

but you need to get
different attorneys."

They decided that they needed

an African-American attorney.

And that it would look better
to the jury.

"Hire Ed Bell and Sam Gardner

and everything will be okay."

When they went forward,
they changed their strategy.

They, they decided
not to heavily pursue the idea

that these drugs
where not Rick's.

Fatal mistake.

Sam Gardner was Coleman
Young's lawyer at the time, and-

the only reason they were
brought in-

was to watch me.

It wasn't to help me.

Basically, every time I went
to see him, he just told me,

"I had nothing to worry about.
Things were looking good."

I was told at one time
that I wouldn't go to trial.

He didn't think
that we would go to trial.

Before they went to trial,

his trial attorneys agreed

to withdraw all
the pretrial motions.

They agreed not to admit
any evidence

in front of the jury

that he had been working
for the government

since he was 14.

So, the jury never heard that.

Basically I think the fix was in-

and Coleman didn't want me on
the streets anymore.

So them being my attorneys-

I think they tanked the case.

I think it was like a whirlwind

that just kind of swept them up.

'Cause the phone conversation
I remember having with him,

he was kind of baffled
by his notoriety.

And then that time
when I saw him,

you know,
he's waiting on his jury

and all these assholes
are around him.

All of them wanted him
to be convicted

I'm sure, that's why
they showed up.

Rick took the nickname
and ran with it.

I mean, he didn't have
to wear the fur coats.

He didn't have
to show up to trial

with a whole crew of little kids

wearing beepers and gold chains.

He came to court
like a drug dealer.

I said, "Rick, if those jurors
see all these little crooks

running around with you,
you're dead."

We was told
to show up down there

with our expensive cars,
jewelry,

and just get in front
of the news.

These all his workers.
Kingpin is on trial.

Drug lord is on trial.

And his friends down here
trying to free him.

Of course, it hurt him. There's
no doubt about it, it hurt him.

Same police officers
paid us to do that.

Ain't nobody ever

heard of him being no drug lord

until they print that shit
in the paper.

Where the hell
was he a kingpin of?

Us blacks?

Oh, hell no.

We made it seem like that,
but he wasn't.

They had this newspaper article
where they actually listed him

as the leader
of the Best Friends gang.

Which is crazy, you know.

Best Friends were like
this hit gang

that had over a hundred murders.

It's just incredible and crazy.

We had to rely
on law enforcement.

We saw the documents.
We saw them firsthand.

They were shared with us
and we did our best to vet them.

But we were certainly
not making stuff up

or fabricating.

There was enough going on
to keep us all busy

with crazy-enough stories.

You had characters
like Maserati Rick

who survived
an assassination attempt

and then was murdered
in his hospital bed.

And in the nightstand
was a pistol

and a crucifix
and, uh, rosary beads.

He was buried in
a Mercedes-Benz coffin.

So you didn't have
to make stuff up.

But that's how the cops
had it set up.

And that's how they listed him
and that's how we reported it.

And that's how we sourced it
in the story

and the graphic illustrations,

that this was based
on law enforcement documents

and sources.

It was a political move.

That's why they
could put him away forever.

Nate was showing up down there-which we saw
Nate there-to try and do some harm to me.

I was trying to shoot him
out at the courthouse.

We had the van
already parked up on Gratiot.

I already had the scope
and everything scoped in,

but, at that point,
they walked him underneath

into the courthouse.

"What do you mean
he in the courtroom?"

They said, "Yeah,
he in the courtroom."

Of course we
were a little more careful and-

when we left the courthouse, or
where we parked the car, or whatever.

He wasn't
there to wish me well at trial.

And he was convicted

and, after that, it was easy.

You're going to jail.

You're never gonna see
the light of day.

This operation
was called Operation Backbone.

The reason I named it Backbone,

I figured you need some backbone

to work this case, you know.

At that time,
it was the most significant

police corruption investigation

in the state of Michigan.

The objective was

I knew through
the Curry investigation

and the Damion Lucas homicide

that that investigation
was partly compromised.

And I knew that there were
corrupt police officers

involved in this thing.

So, that was the objective,

to get these corrupt cops.

And he called out of the blue

and I said,
"What's going on, Rick?"

He said, "Well, the FBI is here
and they want me to help them.

They have said
that they will help me

if I help them."

"But if you cooperate
on this undercover project

and everything works fine,

the best I can do is,

maybe, take you out
of the state custody

and put you in the Federal
Witness Protection Program

in a federal facility
with other informants.

And it might just be
a better situation.

And if you ever
become eligible for parole,

I'll come back
and testify for you.

I'll tell them what you did."

He said, "You know what?"

We shook hands and that
was the agreement we made.

And the Feds, during that time,
were chasing Coleman Young hard.

They wanted to bring down
the mayor of Detroit.

The FBI wanted to
use my relationship with Cathy-

to target the mayor-

as well as police corruption
within the city of Detroit.

They were targetting Willie
Volson.

He was married to the mayor's
sister.

He was Cathy's father of course
and-

everyone knew that Willie had
pull-

throughout the city of Detroit.

The other target of operation
was Jimmy Harris.

He was a high ranking Detroit
police official.

He did whatever mayor Young told
him to do.

He covered up the thinks that
the mayor's family did.

To my knowledge, for the right
price-

they were willing to protect
drug shipments-

from anywhere, I mean-

if it was in the city of Detroit
and they could make a buck off of it-

they were willing to provide
that police protection.

So, I got
Rick Wershe's sister, Dawn,

to cooperate with me as well.

And she had a relationship
with Cathy.

I had an agent
by the name of Mike Castro

who had served extensively
in the Caribbean

and knew the Caribbean
pretty well.

I introduced Mike Castro-who
was the undercover FBI agent-

to Cathy. He posed as my
supplier from Miami.

And me knowing Cathy and her
family-how greedy they were-

I knew Cathy would cut into him-

and that's exactly what
happened.

We arranged a dinner
with Wershe's sister,

Cathy Volsan-Curry,
and Mike Castro.

Which I attended,
but I was off to the side

and it was recorded.

So, during that conversation,

uh, Cathy was just enamored

with the prospect
of getting back

into the cocaine business
and so forth.

Uh, her eyes lit up.

And at that point, she offered
her police assistance.

So basically we're businessmen-

we're in the drug business.

We invited Willie Volsan

and James Harris
down to Florida.

Had an undercover yacht.

Sat down there,
and on videotape,

and negotiated the deal.

We'd like to-

fly something in.

We're going to look like businessmen
delivering packages. Okay.

- Only us and you will know it's
drugs.

No one else is going to know
anything.

Okay.

We're going to probably-

ship up in the plane around 100
keys.

- You provide protection-

and protection from the police.

Think you can handle that?

What you're talking about is no problem.

Right.

I've got three Detroit
police officers myself-it's cool.

Okay. Alright.

These people have been with me.

You can trust them.

We'll have out equipment, our
van or whatever-

load it up.

Just like the money laundering operation-you
escort us away from the airport-

out on the highway and-

sayonara!

- For a successful mission and
a-

a good escape and all of that-

40-50 grand?

So do we got a deal?

Yep.
We go. We go.

Partners in crime brother!
- Here we go.

Willie and Cathy

along with Detroit Police
Sergeant Jimmy Harris

were charged last month
in an FBI corruption case

alleging that police officers
took payoffs

to protect drug
and drug money shipments

coming into the city
in Metro Airport.

Any other mayor would have been glad to have
corruption out of their police department.

Unless your brother-in-law is
the head of the corruption.

And then this guy goes on to
call me a stool pigeon.

That's like an old gangster term
for a rat.

Did that put your life
in danger,

having Coleman Young
call you a stool pigeon?

Oh, there's no doubt about it.

Eighteen

corrupt police officers
and politicians,

as a result
of Wershe's direct involvement

in this thing, went to prison.

And without White Boy Rick

or Richard Wershe, Jr.

it's I think he'd prefer
to be called at this point,

that never would have happened.

And they haven't even
scratched the surface.

The corruption runs so deep
in there it's...

It's insane, man.

During the FBI investigation,

Hill met with Harris,
a longtime friend, Volsan,

and the undercover agent
posing as the drug dealer.

Willie would, uh,
constantly brag

about his relationship
with Gil Hill.

And so, toward
the end of the operation,

we wanted to see

if he'd actually set up
an introduction to Gil Hill,

and he did.

We got a wiretap authority

to install wiretaps
inside of Willie Volsan's car.

And we arranged it
for both undercover agents

to meet with Gil Hill
and Willie Volsan,

and that happened.

During that conversation,

Mike Castro let it be known
that he was a money launderer

and they were drug dealers.

Uh, that plainly.

It was my thought

that, uh, if Gil Hill
wanted to get up

and run out of that meeting,
so be it.

He's an innocent guy.
But if he stayed,

that meant something else.

And not only did he stay,

but he had a conversation
which was taped.

And in that conversation,

Gil Hill said he wanted
to get money

from Mike Castro.

I got authorization
to pay him the money,

$20,000.00.

The thing languished,
and it languished,

and it languished

before the bureaucrats
could make up their mind.

When they finally
made up their mind,

uh, the trail had cooled.

I think Gil, at that point,

uh, being a smart guy,
he smelled a rat

and, and didn't take the bait,

so we lost an opportunity.

But Hill refused
to get involved.

He says the entire probe
smacks of entrapment.

It seems like this upset you.

Tremendously.

Now, is he
this major criminal mastermind?

I don't think so.

Was he a guy who played fast
and loose, and...

Perhaps.

And maybe have crossed
the line a couple of times.

But try as they might,

and I know the Feds
who were chasing him,

trying their damndest.

These were solid
hardworking guys after him.

They were not dogging it.

If they could have caught him,
they would have. They didn't.

Reporters were chasing Gil Hill

down the street,

asking him if he was involved
in taking bribes.

And that's very damaging

if you wanna be the next mayor
of the city of Detroit.

Gil Hill ran for mayor and lost,

but Gil Hill blames Rick

for him not becoming the mayor.

I think helping the
FBI with Operation Backbone-

was the biggest mistake of my
life.

Because it created enemies that-

I couldn't even imagine-I was a
kid.

I didn't think of the political
aspects of it.

There's still
a lot of angry people

in the city of Detroit

in positions of power.

In Michigan, you're supposed
to have an opportunity

to have a parole hearing
every five years.

Rick Wershe has only had
one parole hearing

in 28 years in prison.

That parole hearing was in 2003,

and it was a spectacle.

When you're up for parole,

what the parole board does
is they send letters out

to the original trial judge.

In Rick's case, it was a judge

by the name of Thomas Jackson
who's recently retired.

And Judge Jackson wrote back
and he said,

"I have no problem with this
young man getting out.

He's served a long time
in jail."

They then send the letter
at the same time

to the prosecuting
attorney's office.

The chief prosecutor
was a fellow

by the name of Michael Duggan.

And Michael Duggan

is now the mayor
of the city of Detroit.

The first response
from that office was,

"We have no problem
with him getting out."

Two weeks later,

another letter comes
from that office saying,

"Disregard the first letter.
We don't want him out."

In the letter, which was
a multipage letter,

they were saying
that Richard Wershe, Jr.

was responsible for the downfall
of the city of Detroit.

Rick Wershe was involved
in cases as a juvenile

where the witnesses
just disappeared.

That this kid is so dangerous

that he should never be
let out of prison.

And it was signed
by Michael Duggan.

If you ask him today,

he'll tell you he doesn't
remember that letter

and he didn't remember
signing it.

If you look at the letter,

the name right
underneath Michael Duggan

is that of his chief assistant,

Samuel Gardner.

Rick's two defense attorneys
at the time he was convicted

was Samuel Gardner and Ed Bell,

who were law partners.

He wanted to keep
me in prison as long as he could.

I mean here's a guy that was my
lawyer-

and was the number two
prosecutor-

told me I had nothing to worry
about.

And then this letter that was-

so outlandish and crazy gets
sent to the parole board.

I think it proves that they
threw the case from the beginning-

and that their ultimate goal was
to keep me in prison.

So I went over to the hearing,

and, in, in the first day
of the hearing,

I heard federal agents say

that Rick Wershe
was very helpful.

Instrumental in bringing
down dirty cops

and other drug dealers
in Detroit,

and that they believed
he should be let out of prison,

that he should be paroled.

You come back the next day,

and it's a completely
different story.

The Wayne County
Prosecuting Attorney

brings in three or four
homicide detectives.

I was approached by Deputy Chief

Dennis Richardson,

and was told that I was gonna go

to the parole hearing.

The goal of the hearing
was to make sure

that he was not released.

That Richard Wershe
was considered to be dangerous.

They characterized him
as, uh, Al Capone.

And they start detailing
the collapse of the city.

And then I talked about,
in generalities,

the damage that drugs had did
to the city of Detroit.

- The story of all
of the homicides,

and all of the drugs,
and all of the murders.

- That was the extent
of my contact

with the parole board.

But the other members

of the police department
and, and law enforcement

that was there
went into generalities also.

And if you read it,

the transcript, carefully,

they just keep throwing
Rick Wershe, Jr.'s name in.

They never say
that he does this stuff.

It's fair that you could
have implied

that they knew
about Richard Wershe.

Because they slanted it

to whereas he was
to be considered dangerous

when they didn't know anything
at all about him.

They never even worked drugs.

And some of them
ended up in prison themselves.

In order to prepare
for the parole hearing,

I was given information
to review and look at

so that I can familiarize myself
with Richard Wershe.

They went to
the Detroit Free Press

and said,

"We need to have
all of the news articles

with regards to Rick Wershe

because we wanna review
a bunch of this information.

Well, now we know

that half of the stuff that's
in print wasn't true at all.

It was made up
by the news media.

Listening
to these police officers

say that Rick Wershe
was violent and dangerous

and should not be
let out of prison

was hard-hitting.

And it was powerful.
It was a powerful testimony.

You had some people
that testified

in favor of Rick Wershe

including Kid Rock,
the musician.

Kid Rock did not show up
with a big entourage.

He came by himself.

He drove himself
to that hearing,

and he told the parole board
very plainly

that, "This could have been me

if the circumstances
were different,"

and that Rick Wershe
deserves to get out.

And he quietly went away.

But ultimately,

the story didn't play out
that way.

The police jumped on the fact
that Kid Rock was there

and they basically put out
the story line that,

"What? Is White Boy Rick
gonna get out of prison

and go be a roadie for Kid Rock?

There's a real recipe
for success.

Let's take this drug dealer

and put him
with a big-time rapper,

and let's see how well he does.

Let's see
if he's really reformed.

This is not gonna work."

And that played well.

It played well with the public

and I think it played
with the parole board.

And, uh, the result

was they turned down his parole.

It was a sham.

There was absolutely no reason
for any of us to be there

to try to prevent him
from being released.

I voted to have
Rick Wershe released.

It made sense.

There was no reason
in this world

that he should still be there.

This whole thing
stinks to high heaven.

I think it goes back to Gil Hill.

All roads lead back to him.

I mean-

there's someone or some thing that's keeping me
in prison and it's not the crime that I committed.

So, uh, a couple of years
after the parole hearing, uh,

probably around 2005,

Wershe, Jr., uh,
was of course in, uh,

federal, uh, protective custody,

uh, witness protection program

doing his life sentence.

I became aware
that he was involved,

in a very minor way,

in an auto theft ring.

He became aware of the ability

to obtain a car for his mother.

Consisted of him making
some phone calls

on behalf of the people
that were actually involved

in the auto theft ring.

When the Wayne County
Prosecutor's Office found out,

they made phone calls

to the United States
Attorney's Office

down in Miami saying,

"You make sure he's indicted

and the full extent of the law
comes down on him."

I was told, "You take a plea bargain, or I
am going to arrest your mom and your sister."

So what do I do?

I took a plea bargain.

So he pled guilty

and got a five-year sentence.

Ninety-nine-point-nine
percent of all other cases,

the five years
will run concurrently

with the life sentence
that he's under in Michigan.

But because Rick's Rick,

the sentence was ruled
to run consecutively.

If and when he's released here,
which I pray is soon,

he has to go to Florida
and finish out time.

And if you look
at the guy's prison record,

with the exception
of that one incident,

he is someone
that is a model prisoner.

"He has remained misconduct-free
during his entire sentence

with the MDOC which started
in February 5th, 1988.

Mr. Wershe has maintained
steady employment

and has never been
a management problem for staff.

He has good communication skills

and interacts well with staff
and other inmates alike."

In my opinion,

that would show that Mr. Wershe
was a model prisoner.

And there's no reason

that he should have been
denied parole for so long.

"Now, based on my reading
of the briefs,

all parties agreed

that defendant's
original sentence

of life without the possibility
of parole

for a juvenile who committed
a non-violent offense

involving drugs
was unconstitutional.

The case law
over the last decade

has demanded
that we treat juveniles

constitutionally different
than adults.

That difference requires us
to consider the defendant's age

at the time the crime
was committed.

Where a defendant's sentence

violates the constitution,

recent case law holds

that remedy for that violation
is resentencing."

Suddenly in 2015,

Judge Dana Hathaway decided

that she wanted
to resentence Rick Wershe

and it was a major decision.

Uh, he's stunned.

I mean, you can see
in the courtroom, uh,

he, he doesn't know where to go.

I mean, he is just
almost in shock.

We need him out.

He's been in long enough.

I'm a bit overwhelmed

because I've only seen
my father in person

maybe two or three times
in my life,

so it was a difficult
relationship to know someone

your whole life and not really.

They wouldn't even allow him out

for my dad's funeral.

When my dad was dying
of cancer, we, um...

We asked and they said, "No.

It's too high
of a security risk."

I wold like to spread
my dad's ashes somewhere and-

visit my grandparents' grave.

I just wanna see him,
like I said,

and spend time with him
before I die.

My mother's not in good health, I mean-

after twenty-nine years you
don't hit the ground running-

but I think I have a good
support team.

He's supposed to get out.

And if he doesn't get out,
I want you, news guys,

to be investigating

as to who in the hell
wants him in

and who has that kind of power
to keep him in.

Wershe will be back here
in two weeks

to hear the judge's sentence.

If it is the time served,

it's possible he could walk out
of here a free man.

It would definitely mean
that his time as a prisoner

is near its end.

Kym Worthy objected to that.

She's the prosecutor
in Wayne County.

In 2015, she said,

"We believe the law says

that Rick Wershe
must stay in prison

until the parole board
releases him."

So as it stands right now,

Rick Wershe
will not be resentenced.

When Prosecutor Worthy
objected to my resentencing,

I was disappointed.

I didn't think that there was
a legitimate basis for it.

And then
when the Court of Appeals

sided with the prosecutor,

I was disappointed again.

I thought that, uh, my opinion
had strong legal footing

given the fact
that his sentence was ultimately

an Eighth Amendment violation

and I thought the remedy
should have been resentencing.

Oh, I'm disappointed. I mean-

let down a little bit, but-

I expected it to be honest with
you.

After all this time in here you don't
believe you're doing to get out of here-

until the day you walk out of
here.

Kym Worthy is one
of the main people

standing in his way
of becoming a free man.

And she's
made no public statement

over the years.

She's never given any indication

why she's so dead set

on Rick Wershe staying
in prison.

I've done dozens of stories

on the injustice of Rick Wershe
still being in prison.

And I've truly felt

that the stories I've done
should have been enough

for people
to do the right thing,

but that hasn't happened.

His sentence
shocks the conscience.

How long he was in
shocks the conscience.

I'm not saying he was innocent,

but part our job is letting
the punishment fit the crime.

And here, it absolutely did not.

For a juvenile defendant

to never have his age
taken into consideration

was highly inappropriate

and inconsistent
with the case law

that's been evolving
for the past decade.

He's a juvenile
non-violent offender

who served 29 years.

He should be out.

He is a political prisoner.

He is being held
against his will

by the politicians of Michigan

for crimes he never did!

There is a relationship

between the current
Wayne County prosecutor

and Gil Hill.

From what I saw,

Kym Worthy and Gil Hill

had a professional
and political relationship.

Uh, she
and Gil Hill worked together

especially when he was,
um, city council,

so they have a long history.

So I think
that's where the issue is.

Well, the city lost
a good one today.

Gilbert Hill,
or Gil as we knew him,

died today peacefully
with family by his side.

homicide detective in Detroit

and, of course, landed the role

of Eddie Murphy's
foul-mouthed boss

in Beverly Hills Cop.

Two huge stories today.

First is statement
from Kym Worthy

that she gave exclusively
to the defenders.

Kym Worthy saying she is
going to reconsider her stance.

She may no longer object
to Wershe being locked up.

This decision by Kym Worthy

coming the very same day

that a hitman says he was hired
by a police officer

to kill Rick Wershe
back in the '80s.

Maybe they need to step down
and let the boy out

before I start
really naming names

and they know who they are.

In that documentary,

I'm told that Nate Craft
is going to say

that former Mayor Coleman Young

and former City Council
President Gil Hill

went to great lengths

to make sure
that White Boy Rick Wershe

would stay in prison
for the rest of his life.

So, finally,
after all of this time,

Kym Worthy says she's not
going to stand

in Rick Wershe's way,

but she's not gonna do
anything to help him either.

She's going to leave
that up to the parole board.

Well, that's the problem,

is the parole board.

They believe whoever
is sitting there talking to them

and they never ask
any questions.

They just listen
to it all and then they vote.

And half the time,

they've listened
to the wrong information.

The Supreme Court
in, in the State of Michigan

needs to take a look at this,

or the governor
needs to pardon him.

Every time I've called
the Governor's Office,

I've been told by his Office
of General Counsel

that the governor
doesn't get involved.

In any of the parole instances,

he turns it over
to the parole board.

Think about that concept.

These are unelected people
that are on the board.

They're just regular people

and they're appointed
by the governor.

And you as the governor
of the state of Michigan

that get elected by the citizens
you're going to say,

"Oh, what do you want me to do?"

The parole board says
they shouldn't do anything."

That's crazy.

I think people in Michigan

are finally realizing

that this story
is not going away

and it's not staying local.

It's going to get bigger.
It's going to get national.

It's gonna get international.

And someone's gonna
have to answer

as to why Rick Wershe
is still in prison

because nobody
has answered for that yet.

This is the Claus von Bülow case

uh, that, uh,
I was the appellant lawyer.

And you don't get too many cases

where the reversal
of the conviction

makes the front page
of the New York Times.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz

has an office full of memories
from the big cases.

OJ Simpson, Mike Tyson,

Patty Hearst, Jim Baker.

He can't see any reason

Rick Wershe should still
be behind bars.

This is a terrible,
terrible injustice.

This sentence has
so many constitutional problems

that one would hope
a court would look at it

very skeptically.

One might at least have the hope

that they will see
the thing in context,

and say to themselves,
"Oh, my God.

Young man, drug offense.

Look at how much time he spent.

That doesn't make sense."

Alan Dershowitz
has agreed to assist

Rick Wershe's attorney,
Ralph Musilli, saying,

"An injustice like this
needs as much public attention

as possible."

Who's gonna be the hero here
and do the right thing?

I don't really think
anyone can look

at all the facts
surrounding this case

and not feel bad for him.

And whether it's appropriate
or not for me to say,

I, I am still a human being
despite being the judge

that just happened
to inherit this case.

I can't check that at the door,

and I think part of, uh, my job
is to have compassion

for people and the people
that come before me,

and to see all sides
of the story.

And I don't know how anyone
can look at this

and not feel bad for him.

I say Rick shoulda did

seven, eight years
and been home.

Should have been home.

20 years ago.

Even my daughters,
everybody say,

"Yeah, they should
let the boy go.

He did enough time."

Murders ain't--
He did more time than murderers.

The leader of the
Young Boys Incorporated,

Butch Jones,

the Henry Ford of heroin
as he'd like to call himself,

responsible for hundreds
and hundreds

of kilos of drugs being sold.

Responsible
for multiple murders,

alleged and convicted,

did seven years.

Kurt McGurk
was Butch Jones' protégé.

A 16-year-old hitman
did 25 years.

He's out.

The Curry Boys.

Johnny Curry,
Rick's mentor in the game.

Arguably the biggest Eastside
drug dealer of the 1980s,

ran an empire for ten years.

Went into prison in 1987.

Came out in 1999, 12 years.

Nathaniel "Boone" Craft.

Here I am.

Hitman, murderer,

however y'all wanna put it.

Admitted to killing 30 people
in open court

did 17 years, he's out.

I'm not in prison no longer.

I'm free,

and hoping one day y'all will
free White Boy Rick.

What rational human
being would say

that a man who has admitted
30 execution-style killings,

who then cooperates
with law enforcement,

should get out in 17 years

and Richard Wershe, Jr.
should be in for 28 years?

I know I'm going to hell.

There's nothing that I could do
to change that

because my life
had so much violence,

so much everything but, yet,

White Boy Rick
is still locked up.

The government takes
a 14-year-old boy

out of high school

and places him in imminent peril

so that they can do their job.

And after they used him up,

they kick him to the curb,

and send him to jail
for the rest of his life.

He done served a lot of time

for something that he wasn't.

Bottom line,
for something that he wasn't.

What happens if...

three, or four, or five,
ten years down the road,

Rick, you get out of prison?
What do you do, then?

Start my life over.

Try and start
from the beginning, you know?

I wanna go home,
be able to raise my kids,

have a family,

get a job somewhere,
and then lead a normal life.

Hello. I'm Kevin Dietz
with a breaking news story.

A decision is in

on the Richard Wershe
"White Boy Rick" case.

The parole board has voted,
and they have voted

to parole Richard Wershe.

He will be freed
of his life sentence in prison

- in the state of Michigan.

Oh, my God!

- Is that it?

He did it.

The administrative assistant
came and called me in the office and-

-he basically told me, "Listen,
it's over."

"You're done. Michigan paroled
you."

And what did you do?

I cried man.

I cried.