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Video shows Richard Wershe Jr. leaving Florida prison

'White Boy Rick' is free man after more than 30 years

In this video above, you can see Richard Wershe Jr., a.k.a. “White Boy Rick,” behind the prison gate using a sheet to hide his face after his release from prison.

In the video, Wershe is sitting in the back seat of a BMW sport utility vehicle. His fiancé is sitting in the front passenger’s seat.

Wershe was released from a Florida halfway house on Monday, July 20, 2020, making him a free man for the first time in more than 30 years. He was the longest-serving nonviolent juvenile offender in Michigan history. Arrested at 17 years old for drug offenses, he was locked up in Michigan until age 48. Then he had to serve time in Florida for a crime he pleaded guilty to committing while behind bars in Michigan.

At age 14 he became the youngest FBI informant ever and helped bring down some of Detroit’s biggest drug dealers. But then he became a drug dealer himself, crossed powerful city leaders, and ended up in prison for three decades.

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Richard Wershe Jr. mugshot for Florida Department of Corrections

Read more: How ‘White Boy Rick’ became an informant, drug dealer in Detroit

In 1987, Wershe was arrested for possessing cocaine in excess of eight kilograms. He was sentenced to life in prison in Michigan under the state’s “650-Lifer Law,” a drug statute that penalized those found in possession of more than 650 grams of cocaine or heroin with a stiff penalty of life imprisonment without parole.

Wershe earned his parole in 2017 after nearly 30 years in prison. He was released from the Oaks Correctional Facility in Michigan in April 2017 and turned over to U.S. Marshals.

He was then transferred to a Florida prison because of a crime he committed while behind bars in Michigan. Wershe pleaded guilty to being involved in a car theft ring.

He now plans to return to Metro Detroit. He still has probation to serve in Michigan.

Read more: ‘White Boy Rick’ Wershe Jr. to return to Metro Detroit after release



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