Judge dismisses Richard Wershe Jr.'s lawsuit against FBI, Detroit police
(CBS DETROIT) - A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Richard Wershe Jr. against the FBI and Detroit police, concluding that Wershe waited too late to file.
Wershe, known as "White Boy Rick," was sentenced in 1988 at age 17 for drug dealing. He served roughly 30 years in prison in Michigan before his release in 2017, followed by a few more years in a Florida prison for an unrelated crime.
In 2021, he filed a lawsuit, alleging that his troubles in the 1980s were related to the pressures of pleasing local police and federal agents who used him as an informant and repeatedly sent him to drug dens.
The lawsuit claimed Wershe feared retaliation if he spoke out; however, Judge Kay Behm concluded Wershe's lawsuit was "time-barred."
"The court finds that [Wershe] has not met his burden to show that he acted 'as diligently as reasonably could be expected,' where he did not take any action to file a claim or seek protection from the alleged threats of retaliation during his lengthy prison sentence," Behm wrote.
"[Wershe] has also not alleged any facts tending to show that he was still at risk of retaliation after he was granted parole, released from the Michigan prison system, and transferred to the Florida prison system in 2017," Behm later added.
Wershe's story was the basis of the 2018 film "White Boy Rick," starring Matthew McConaughey and Richie Merritt. The title referred to Wershe's nickname in his younger days, a nickname he dislikes.