The former Detroit drug dealer dubbed “White Boy Rick” has waited nearly 30 years for the information he received today: he will be paroled from prison.
Richard "White Boy Rick" Wershe Jr. is now scheduled to be released from custody July 20, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Wershe, 50, who grew up on Detroit's east side, has spent more than three decades incarcerated.
Detroit Police arrested 17-year-old Wershe in 1987, and a jury convicted him of possession with intent to deliver more than 650 grams of cocaine. Officials said he stashed 8 kilos of cocaine and nearly $30,000.
In 2017, the Michigan Parole Board voted unanimously to parole Wershe, who has said he started working as a law enforcement informant when he was 14.
Instead of being released from prison, Wershe was sent to Florida where he was previously convicted of racketeering charges in connection with a stolen-car scheme that he was involved in while imprisoned in that state. Wershe was sentenced to five years for his role in 2006.
He was in the federal witness protection program in a Florida prison because he helped the FBI in an investigation involving corrupt police officers after his drug conviction.
Officials from the Florida Department of Corrections did not respond to a Free Press request for comment about Wershe's upcoming release.
This is not the first time Werhe's release date has been moved up.
Wershe has been the subject of national attention. His notoriety was projected onto screens nationwide in a Hollywood film starring Matthew McConaughey in 2018 and a documentary directed by Shawn Rech in 2017.
Wershe, a father of three and grandfather, was originally sentenced to life in prison without parole for the drug conviction. Later, it became life with the possibility of parole because of changes in drug law.
During his 2017 parole hearing, Wershe said he’s a changed man and vowed to never commit another crime.
"I know that the drugs I sold destroyed people's lives," Wershe said at the time. "I can't take it back."
DETROIT (WJBK) - A council president who says one thing but does another, a senator with a potential conflict of interest, a candidate paying herself to run for office, a mayor sued by a whistleblower, a politician who can't follow the rules and the son of a legendary mayor seeking to replace the congressman who tried to replace his dad as mayor nearly 30 years ago.
One of these six candidates will punch their ticket to Washington, D.C. next Tuesday, and almost none of them have volunteered the information I and a team of reporters uncovered.
For two months, reporters for Fox 2 News, Detroit Public Radio (WDET, 101.9 FM), the Lansing-based Gongwer News Service and the Michigan Campaign Finance Network (mcfn.org) scrutinized the six Democrats vying to replace Congressman John Conyers in Michigan's 13th congressional district. Conyers retired last year after 54 years in Congress after allegations that he sexually harassed women who worked for him. Because there is no Republican on the ballot, whoever wins he Democratic primary is all-but guaranteed to represent Detroit and surrounding communities including Wayne, Westland, River Rouge, Harper Woods, Ecorse, Lincoln Park, Wyandotte and the Grosse Pointes.
With so much on the line, the reporters came together with a simple mission: Provide voters with as much information as possible - with an emphasis on providing voters the kind of information about the candidates that candidates typically leave out of their campaign commercials or literature.
The reporters ran the candidates through about two dozen filters, checking to see if they, and in some cases, theircompanies, popped up in local, state and federal public records. The reporters traveled to courthouses in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, and also examined property records.
The candidates were given a chance to respond to the reporters' findings. The reporters also included information on the candidates' key issues - as well as matters they oppose.
To see what we found, watch my latest exclusive Problem Solvers investigation. CLICK here for the Michigan Political Almanac, where you can learn more about every candidate running for office in Michigan this year.
Contact M.L. Elrick at ml.elrick@foxtv.com or 248-552-5261. Follow him on Facebook at "ML Elrick," on Twitter @elrick or on Instagram at "ml_elrick."
David "The Dude" Dudenhoefer (center right, light blue shirt)
This is a bit of an arcane system to find out the status of a candidate and an election, having to constantly check the website to see if someone updated the pdf list.
I will be popping by the Office to take a peek at the petition nomination sheets and to make sure that I have enough popcorn stocked up.
Let us extend a warm welcome to David "The Dude" Dudenhoefer (to the 2 year term) and Kentiel White (to the partial term ending 1-3-2018) to the U.S. Representative Michigan 13th Congressional 2018 race.
Detroit has a long and sorrid history when it comes to public corruption and complex fraud schemes.
As Alexis Wiley, Mayor Duggan's chief of staff, considers this ad as false, I have provided, below, the actual SIGTARP subpoena, issued on my birthday and have also embedded links to the articles from the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, and MLive, for futher discrimination and/or verifications of the "assertions" about incumbant Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's activities with the Detroit Land Bank Authority made by the Save Our City Super PAC in support of Coleman Young, II's candidacy for Mayor of Detroit.
State Sen. Coleman A. Young II, considered an underdog in his election bid for mayor of Detroit, has produced a scathing 30-second commercial with only weeks to go in the campaign, comparing his opponent Mayor Mike Duggan to the corrupt ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is serving 28 years in prison for public corruption.
"Kwame Kilpatrick went to prison for rigging city contracts," the commercial begins. "So what's the difference between him and Mike Duggan who also admitted to rigging city contracts? A federal grand jury in Detroit has subpoenaed records and officials from the Detroit Land Bank Authority and from the city housing demolition program. A former high ranking police official also has been indicted for taking bribes from tow truck owners.
When will the corruption stop?
Why does Duggan get a pass while Kwame Kilpatrick goes to jail for 28 years?
It's as simple as black and white.
It's Young's first campaign ad, which he plans to run on Fox 2, WADL-TV, WHPK-TV and on cable.
Federal authorities investigating city hall, to date, have not accused Duggan of any wrongdoing.
The ad is paid for by "Save Our City Super PAC."
Young and Duggan are set to debate Oct. 25. The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 7.
Rep. Conyers invited U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to join in on the discussion. Topics included healthcare, creating good paying jobs, raising wages and building an economy that gives every American the tools to succeed in the 21st century.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. Photo by Steve Neavling.
Mayor Mike Duggan has built a formidable political fundraising machine unlike anything Detroit has ever seen.
The first-term mayor raised a whopping $2.8 million for his re-election bid, courting big banks, suburban developers, corporate executives, political action committees and other deep-pocket movers-and-shakers, many of whom have contracts with the city or bought Detroit-owned property in the past three years. Wow, considering the rate of child poverty in Detroit, I guess he would have to fundraise outside the city limits.
By comparison, his challengers raised a mere $44,300 combined, giving Duggan a significant money advantage going into Tuesday’s primary election. But the mayor’s fundraising prowess raises serious questions about his influence with outsiders who don’t always have Detroit neighborhoods’ best interests at heart or who have contributed heavily to Republican candidates, including Donald Trump, Gov. Rick Snyder and the Michigan Republican Party. Something tells me Coleman knows something about something that is going to happen and will not have to raise a single penny for his campaign to be successful.
A Motor City Muckraker review of Duggan’s latest campaign finance report, which covers $1.6 million in donations from November 2016 to July 23, found:
Just 10% of the mayor’s donations came from inside Detroit. Of those, nearly half came from political action committees.
Twelve of Duggan’s 26 fundraisers were held outside of Detroit, including two in New York City, three in Bloomfield Hills, one in Grand Rapids and one in Lansing.
Duggan’s most successful fundraiser was held at the sprawling home of Yousif and Mara Ghafari, both of whom have histories of donating tens of thousands of dollars to the Michigan Republican Party and conservative candidates, including Donald Trump, Gov. Snyder, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.
An unusual number of employees from deep-pocket companies contributed to Duggan’s campaign, including more than 150 from Blue Cross Blue Shield, 119 from the law firm of former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, 30 from DTE and 43 attorneys from Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn. Two Blue Cross employees said they felt pressured to donate.
Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone, the law firm representing the mayor’s controversial demolition program, which is under a federal grand jury investigation, donated $26,600. The firm’s PAC also donated $10,000 in October 2016.
Duggan relied heavily on suburban billionaires and their companies, including Dan Gilbert’s Quicken Loans, Roger Penske and his businesses, the conservative DeVos and Meijer families and Tony Soave, who gave former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s friend, Bobby Ferguson, $30 million in work from 2002 and 2008 and spent an additional $300,000 on Kilpatrick for private flights, hotels, watches and sporting events.
Two high-ranking Snyder employees – senior adviser Richard Baird and former Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore – both donated to Duggan and were influential in the financial takeovers of primarily black cities.
Since Duggan became mayor in January 2014, he raised an additional $433,000 through his controversial nonprofit, Detroit Progress Fund, which can take unlimited contributions. A vast majority of the donors are corporations, many of which have contracts with the city.
Duggan’s campaign declined to comment on the outside donations but insisted the mayor was running a “grassroots campaign.”
I wonder if Motor City Muckrucker asked the Detroit Land Bank Authority about its participation in the campaign.
“Mayor Duggan has been running a grassroots campaign from the beginning and will continue to do so,” said campaign spokeswoman Sharon Banks, who also served as the press secretary for then-Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano. “He is across the city every day visiting and meeting with residents in the neighborhoods. The more than 10,000 families with a sign in their yard is a good sign that they believe the city is headed in the right direction.”
I believe "grassroots" means what is left of the properties that were stolen from the people by the Detroit Land Bank Authority.
Sen. Coleman Young II. Photo by Steve Neavling.
Duggan’s most competitive challenger, Sen. Coleman Young II, who raised $22,000 so far, criticized the mayor for relying on big banks and corporate outsiders who have preyed on the neighborhoods.
"Always remember, it takes a village...then pillages its treasury."
“Duggan has aligned himself with those who have made millions and millions of dollars off the misery of folks who live in Detroit,” Young’s campaign manager Adolph Mongo told us. “None of these corporations care about the revival of the neighborhoods. The banks, Quicken Loans and people like Dan Gilbert are the direct cause of the problems and foreclosures in the neighborhood.” I believe the proper corporate reference would be Title Source, Incorporated.
Mongo added, “Unlike Duggan, Sen. Young refuses to be bought off and won’t sell the mayor’s office to get donations.”
While Duggan is leading Young in recent polls, serious questions have been raised about the mayor’s loyalty to neighborhoods, where most of the city’s predominately black population lives. Duggan, for example, is demolishing thousands of houses with federal money originally intended to help people save their homes. The mayor also repeatedly lied to the public about the use of $34.5 million in captured taxes to convince billionaire Tom Gores to move the Pistons to downtown Detroit. He also struck deals with the billionaire Illitch family and Dan Gilbert, allowing them to skirt affordable housing requirements for big residential developments in downtown and the rapidly gentrifying Cass Corridor. Guess where the money for these project came from! You, the taxpayer.
Among the biggest contributors to Duggan’s campaign was Blue Cross Blue Shield, which has lucrative contracts with the city. More than 150 employees and executives donated nearly $70,000 in the past several months, and the insurance company’s Lansing-based PAC contributed more than $75,000 to Duggan’s campaign and his Detroit Progress Fund.
I bet if you back track, the Clinton Foundation will be his biggest, dark, dirty money campaign contributor.
Blue Cross CEO Daniel Loepp
Blue Cross CEO Dan Loepp urged more than 1,000 employees to donate to Duggan’s campaign in March, potentially violating the company’s own code of business conduct, Crain’s Detroit Business reported.A day later, members of the company’s PAC received an email from Duggan’s campaign asking for money.
Blue Cross prohibits the use of “company property, facilities or time of any other workforce member for any political activity.”
Two Blue Cross employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, told Motor City Muckraker they felt pressured to donate.
“If you want to climb up the ladder, you do what the CEO wants,” one employee said.
Hmmmm, I wonder what Bill Schuette is doing right about now....
Yousif Ghafari
Duggan’s most successful fundraiser – in which $277,000 was donated – was held on June 19 at the sprawling Bloomfield Hills home of Yousif and Mara Ghafari, who are deep-pocket donors to Republican candidates. Yousif Ghafari, the former U.S. ambassador to Slovenia, also sits on the Blue Cross Blue Shield Board of Directors.
The Ghafari family owns Ghafari Associates, which opened an office in downtown Detroit earlier this year. Wayne Count successfully sued the Dearborn-based company for its role in the failed jail project.
Duggan received 56 donations exceeding $1,000 from out-of-state residents, including six executives from JPMorgan Chase, which reached a $55 million settlement with the government in January over allegations that it discriminated against thousands of black and Latino mortgage borrowers.
Many of the out-of-state donations came during two fundraisers in New York City. Duggan raised $31,519 on the 20th floor of 277 Park Avenue, where JP Morgan Chase’s world headquarters are.
Duggan raised an additional $15,150 at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser at Shinola’s flagship store in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan.
Banks, through the Detroit Land Bank Authority, hand out mortgages through the Hardest Hit Fund.
Another company that profits off of foreclosures, Ohio-based Safeguard Properties, also donated to Duggan’s campaign. Founder and chairman Robert Klein and his wife Ita Klein each contributed the maximum $6,800. The company clears out bank-foreclosed homes.
...and clears out Detroit Land Bank Authority Quiet Title Actions.
Detroit donations
More than two dozen executives with Detroit-based Quicken Loans, which the federal government also accused of predatory lending, contributed nearly $73,000 to Duggan’s re-election campaign. In early July, a federal judge ruled that Quicken Loans officers brokered illegal loans in excess of fair market value by relying on excessive home appraisals.
Title Source, Incorporated was fraudulently collecting non-existent, made up, delinquent taxes for Detroit Land Bank Authority because the Detroit Land Bank Authority is not a registered corporation, which means it has to run its money laundering through another host.
Dennis Archer Jr.
Former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and his son Dennis Archer Jr. turned out big for Duggan. Archer Jr., who won at least two competitive land contracts from the Duggan administration, was a guest speaker at the Shinola fundraiser in New York City. He and his company, Ignition Media Group, donated $14,000 to Duggan’s Detroit Progress Fund.
Archer’s father held a fundraiser for Duggan at the former mayor’s home in Palmer Park, where 29 guests donated a combined $49,240. Archer’s law firm, Dickinson Wright, also held a fundraiser at the company’s office in downtown Detroit, raising $10,850. A total of 115 employees of Dickinson Wright donated to Duggan’s campaign.
Oh, DJ...
On Monday, Motor City Muckraker explores how Duggan spent his donations and ran his campaign.
