Florida Clemency Board Takes White Boy Rick Wershe Case ‘Under Advisement’

View portion of Wershe hearing at end of post.

Richard “White Boy Rick” Wershe, Jr. has been in prison for 31 years for a non-violent drug offense and a minor role in a stolen car ring. Yet, the Executive Clemency Board of the Florida Commission on Offender review wants to think about whether he should be released from prison.

This morning, Wednesday, March 13^th, they took “under advisement” his petition for early release from prison, despite the fact their own investigative unit recommended that he be released and two retired FBI agents testified in his behalf.

Will he be released?

Wershe, now 49 years old, was the youngest-ever paid FBI drug informant when he was a teen on Detroit’s east side. Moreover, he was “the most productive drug informant the Detroit FBI had (in the 1980s),” according to John Anthony, a retired FBI special agent who was the legal adviser to the agency’s Detroit office for many years.

The former informant is serving a five-year prison sentence in a minimum-security prison. With credit for time served and good behavior he is scheduled for release in November, 2020.

He served 29 years of a life sentence for a Michigan drug conviction under a now-discarded law that mandated a life term for anyone caught with over 650 grams of cocaine. Wershe was caught with over 8 kilos of the white powder.

His new job.

Wershe had been recruited by the FBI—at age 14—to become a snitch against the Curry Brothers, one of the top echelon drug gangs in Detroit when the crack cocaine scourge swept the nation. The FBI found out the kid was friendly with the Currys, who were the target of a federal task force investigation. The FBI was particularly intrigued by the fact the group leader, Johnny Curry, was engaged to Cathy Volsan, the niece of the late Coleman Young, Detroit emperor-like mayor.

The teen informant did a good job. Perhaps too good. He told on the wrong people. Politically-connected people. When the FBI suddenly dropped him as an informant, Wershe, a school dropout from a dysfunctional family, turned to the only trade he knew: the one the narcs had taught. He started selling cocaine, hoping to become a wholesaler to the inner city’s drug retailers. He got caught and was sentenced to a life prison term.

From prison, Wershe continued to help the FBI in an undercover sting operation that resulted in the conviction of a dozen corrupt cops. This put his life in jeopardy so he was transferred to the federal witness protection program for convicts.

He was in a federal penitentiary in Phoenix for a while but was transferred to another federal prison in Florida. There he made contact with the operators of a used-car sales scheme that turned out to involve stolen cars. Wershe’s role was peripheral but he was participating in a theft scheme while under protection in a federal prison. The State of Florida prosecuted the ring and gave Wershe’s the harshest sentence—five years to run consecutive to his prison term in the Michigan case. Most of the other defendants received probation and restitution.

Wershe was finally paroled in Michigan in 2017 but Florida had a “hold” on him and he was transported to the Sunshine State to begin serving his term for the car theft conviction.

A Great Injustice

At the clemency hearing, retired FBI agent Herman Groman, Wershe’s “handler” in his informant days, testified that he paid his own way to the hearing “…because a great injustice to Richard Wershe, Jr. has been done by the government.” Groman noted Wershe’s extensive cooperation with law enforcement, even while in prison. “His sentence for a non-violent (drug) offense makes no sense to me.” Groman noted he has never advocated for the release of another prison inmate.

Another retired FBI agent, Gregg Schwarz, had less official contact with Wershe, but befriended him and believes the ex-snitch was treated badly by the government. Schwarz says he’s spoken by phone with Wershe twice a week for 32 years. “He’s contributed greatly to law enforcement. I challenge anybody to tell me one prisoner who has contributed more to law enforcement than this man.”

Ashley Moody, the new Florida Attorney General sounded unimpressed. She noted he was convicted in a case—grand theft auto—involving over 100 cars. She also argued with the retired FBI agents that Wershe has already had 488 days trimmed from his five-year sentence.

What it all comes down to…

Longtime corrections observers in Florida say it all comes down to how newly-elected Governor Ron DeSantis views the Wershe case. In that regard, it should be noted that after DeSantis won the governorship last fall, he did a “victory tour” of numerous Florida locations. Moody accompanied him. Her influence with him is likely to be a factor. She’s a former judge and she is married to a DEA agent.

Afterward, the mood among Rick Wershe’s advocates and supporters was “doom and gloom” according to Groman. Schwarz spoke with Rick Wershe afterward. He described the long-serving prison inmate as “super super super pissed. Blown away. Shocked.”

There’s no time or date set for the decision on Rick Wershe’s bid for clemency.