This is a “special edition” of the Informant America blog.
This week I submitted a sworn affidavit to the U.S. Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio regarding my detailed
investigation into errors, distortions and outright lies in front of the
Michigan Parole Board in Rick Wershe’s one and only parole hearing in 2003. I
am working on a book about Rick Wershe and the “War on Drugs” and I have
reviewed the court record in the Wershe case. Through considerable and
persistent effort, I have obtained copies of the transcripts of the testimony,
statements, legal motions and arguments on the court record in the Wershe drug
case and I have conducted interviews with some of the key figures, including
eyewitnesses. Some key figures are deceased.
The U.S. 6th Court of Appeals Building-Cincinnati, Ohio. Rick Wershe's parole from a life prison sentence may be decided here. |
For those who don’t know, Wershe has a federal civil rights
lawsuit going against the Michigan Parole Board for violation of his Eighth
Amendment rights regarding cruel and unusual punishment. Ralph Musilli,
Wershe’s attorney, argues it is unusual punishment to keep Wershe in prison
serving a life term when the Parole Board has released every other Michigan
prison inmate similarly charged. That is, they were juveniles when they were
sentenced and their conviction involved a non-violent drug offense. That
describes Rick Wershe. The Michigan Parole Board has released every prisoner
incarcerated under those parameters; everyone except Richard J. Wershe, Jr.
There was a lot of deception and mendacity in Wershe’s 2003
parole hearing but one of the striking elements was a letter submitted by
then-Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Duggan who is now the Mayor of the City of
Detroit. That letter is full of invective and hyperbole (nastiness and vigorous
stretching of the truth) and it calls Rick Wershe “a menace to society.” The
State of Michigan keeps including the Duggan letter in their filings with the
federal courts as an attached exhibit to prove their side of the case. The
letter has been cited several times by the Michigan Attorney General’s office
in the Wershe civil rights lawsuit as “facts” the Parole Board relied upon.
Thus, according to the Attorney General, the Parole Board gave Wershe a “fair”
hearing.
In a word: bullshit.
The Duggan letter is packed with falsehoods, misstatements
of the court record in Wershe’s case and unsupportable claims masquerading as
facts. I can prove it. I’m ready to do so.
The judges and lawyers in this lawsuit keep arguing in
never-ending circles about which established case law applies. Yet all sides
seem to agree the issue is whether Wershe got a “fair” parole hearing. I
contend he did not. And I contend the courts cannot resolve the matter without
taking the time and trouble to re-visit the details of that 2003 hearing. So
far, they have not. They cannot settle an issue of fact by arguing about the
law. My affidavit urges the Court of Appeals to order a full inquiry regarding
that parole hearing, complete with discovery, documents and witness testimony.
My affidavit was sworn to before a notary public, which is
standard practice. It tells the court I am making the statements in the
affidavit under oath regarding the truthfulness of the contents. What follows
is an exact copy. The actual notarized affidavit went to the court.
No one asked me to do this. No one suggested it. In fact,
it is highly unusual for a third party, particularly a reporter-type, to stick
his nose in to an ongoing lawsuit. But in the Wershe saga I have traded my standard reporter coat and tie for the shirtsleeve garb of an old-fashioned muckraking crusading journalist of a century ago. That allows me to spout opinions and raise some hell.
As I noted in my cover letter to the Court of Appeals, “Mr. Wershe is serving a life sentence and he has been denied fair consideration for parole based, to a considerable degree, upon misstatements and falsehoods that can and should be challenged regarding his reputation as a major drug dealer and menace to society.”
As I noted in my cover letter to the Court of Appeals, “Mr. Wershe is serving a life sentence and he has been denied fair consideration for parole based, to a considerable degree, upon misstatements and falsehoods that can and should be challenged regarding his reputation as a major drug dealer and menace to society.”
To follow is the affidavit in its entirety, exactly as it
was submitted to the Court of Appeals. You can download a PDF copy here. You also
can download a copy of the infamous Duggan letter to the Michigan Parole Board here.
I encourage you to make a copy of the Duggan letter and make a copy of my
affidavit and compare them, paragraph by paragraph. You don’t have to be Perry
Mason or Vinny Gambini (My Cousin Vinny)
or even Ally McBeal to figure out there’s something terribly wrong with what
the cops and prosecutors have said for 28 years about Rick Wershe:
Affidavit of Vince Wade
In Re: Richard J. Wershe, Jr. Michigan Department
of Corrections Parole Hearing, March 27, 2003.
State of California )
)
ss.
County of Orange )
I, Vince
Wade, hereby swear that the following statements are true to the best of my
knowledge, information and belief:
1. I am a reporter and television documentary
producer/director with over 40 years of experience in print, radio and
television journalism.
2.
I have received some 20 professional awards for my
work, including three (3) Emmys and the 1st Place award for best
local TV news documentary at the New York and San Francisco International Film
Festivals.
3. I was an on-air investigative reporter, anchor and
special projects producer for WXYZ-TV and WJBK-TV, both in Detroit, Michigan
from 1972 through 1996.
4.
I am currently researching and writing a
non-fiction book about what is known commonly as the War on Drugs, using the case
of Richard J. Wershe, Jr. extensively as a focal point to illustrate various
issues on the subject, particularly the use of confidential informants.
5. I have reviewed and researched the testimony,
statements and documents submitted in the parole hearing for Richard J. Wershe,
Jr. on March 27, 2003.
6. I have discovered serious errors and
mischaracterizations presented to the Michigan Parole Board as fact in the 2003
parole hearing for Richard J. Wershe, Jr.
Significant
elements of the damaging testimony and documentation presented to the Parole
Board during the Wershe hearing can be challenged and refuted through discovery
and sworn testimony.
7. I have researched the allegations and accusations
contained in a February 17, 2003 letter to the Michigan Parole Board
purportedly written by then-Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan in support
of denial of a parole for Mr. Wershe. That letter has been cited by the
Michigan Attorney General’s office in several filings with the U.S. District
Court for the Western District of Michigan and with the U.S. 6th
Circuit Court of Appeals. Through a spokesman, Mr. Duggan has stated that he
has no recollection of writing the letter. Thus, there is a question as to
whether someone else in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office wrote the letter
and submitted it to the Michigan Parole Board under Mr. Duggan’s name.
8.
The purported Duggan letter states: “When the police attempted to arrest him, he
(Wershe) belligerently fought with the officers and assaulted them.” There
was a scuffle, in fact there were several scuffles involving various
individuals at the arrest scene, but Wershe was never charged with assaulting a
police officer. In truth, after his arrest Mr. Wershe was not taken to jail but
he was taken instead to a Detroit hospital for treatment of injuries, including
a broken eye socket, sustained in a beating by Detroit Police officers while he
was handcuffed, on the ground and in custody.
9.
The purported Duggan letter states: “Wershe had 17.5 pounds or approximately 8
kilos of cocaine that was taken to the next door neighbor's house by David
Golly, and placed under their porch.” This one sentence in the purported
Duggan letter contains multiple errors and misstatements of the official court
record in the Wershe case. Discovery and
witness testimony would show Wershe never “had” the cocaine at the time of his
arrest. There is no testimony that there
was cocaine in the vehicle in which Mr. Wershe was a passenger when the vehicle
was stopped by the police.
Wershe’s
fingerprints and palm prints were not on the box of cocaine confiscated by the
police as part of his arrest. The court record clearly shows the box was not “…taken to the next door neighbor’s house…”
Wershe was stopped by the police on Hampshire St. in Detroit. The 17.5 pounds
of cocaine was later found under the porch of a home on Camden Ave., a block
away from the police stop.
Furthermore,
a review of the testimony of David Golly in Mr. Wershe’s preliminary
examination would show Mr. Golly never handled the box and never placed it
under a porch. Mr. Golly spotted the box under the porch of a neighbor named
Story—“I saw a box up under the porch”—and
another man known as “Moosey” retrieved the box and brought it in the Story
house—“Mr. Story asked him to bring it in
the house...in to his son’s bedroom.” The preceding quotes are from the
official preliminary exam court record. Mr. Golly observed certain events but
did not handle the “box” as described in the purported Duggan letter to the
Michigan Parole Board, nor did he see Wershe with the box at any time. The
letter does not accurately reflect the official court record on this issue.
10. The
purported Duggan letter states: "From
the records, it appears that Wershe's gang and the police were
contemporaneously looking for the cocaine up and down the street, both trying
to find it first." There is nothing in the testimony in the Wershe
case or in court documents to substantiate the statement that Wershe had a
“gang” as the term is commonly used in law enforcement. No one has ever been
charged as an associate or member of a Wershe “gang.” No Wershe “gang” member
was arrested or detained or taken in to custody at the time of his arrest.
11.
The purported Duggan letter states: “Wershe had the unmitigated gall and
audacity to go right out again to engage in a drug deal involving 5 more kilos
of cocaine.” The purported Duggan letter fails to inform the Parole Board
that this case, which was filed some five months after Wershe’s May, 1987
arrest, was dismissed at the preliminary exam stage due to questions of
possibly planted evidence and an improper search warrant.
12.
The purported Duggan letter states: "Several of Wershe's gang members were
found dead." As noted in paragraph 10, there is nothing in any federal
or state court records to indicate anyone was ever identified or charged as
Wershe “gang members.” Furthermore, former Detroit Police Homicide Inspector
William Rice, who has submitted a sworn affidavit in regard to the Wershe
parole hearing, states Wershe’s name “never came up” in any homicide
investigations while he was in charge of the Detroit Police Homicide unit,
which encompassed the time up to Mr. Wershe’s incarceration in state prison. If
any homicide victim had been associated with Wershe, Rice would have been aware
of that fact. One of Wershe’s associates was murdered but that was as the
result of a romantic triangle and was not related to narcotics trafficking.
Thus, there is no evidence to support the implied drug violence in the
allegation that “several of Wershe’s gang
members were found dead.”
13. The
purported Duggan letter states: "Witnesses
in inmate Wershe's case just disappeared." This statement is a gross
distortion of the truth. Witness David Golly, for example, did disappear after
Mr. Wershe’s preliminary examination and failed to appear to testify at Mr.
Wershe’s trial. But Mr. Golly has since stated in a sworn affidavit that he was
hiding from the police and not out of fear of Mr. Wershe. Mr. Golly claims prior to the Wershe
preliminary examination, four police officers took him to a downtown Detroit
hotel where they pressured and intimated him. Golly states one officer told him
"...Rick is goin' down. We got him where we want him and you goin' help us
get him there." Golly said he refused and was roughed up. "He told me
that he wanted me to testify against him. I told him no and he smacked me
upside my head and said, 'Yes, you is…”
14. The
purported Duggan letter states: "Inmate
Wershe is precisely the kind of drug dealer, gang leader, notorious violent
kingpin that the over 650 g of controlled substances-lifer law was written for,
and meant to punish."
In
truth, a fair and honest inquiry will show Wershe has never been tried or
convicted for any violent crime. Furthermore, there is not a single shred of
evidence to support the “kingpin” slur against Wershe. He has never been
charged in federal or state court with conspiracy. He has never been charged
with operating a continuing criminal enterprise. He has never been named as a
co-conspirator or unindicted co-conspirator. His name was never mentioned
during the course of any of the major drug trafficking trials in the federal
and state criminal courts in Detroit or any other venue during the era when Mr.
Wershe was on the streets.
15. The
purported Duggan letter states: "Wershe's
violent collateral crimes and the sheer volume of controlled substances that
were introduced to the City of Detroit confirm that Wershe is a serious danger
to the People of the City of Detroit and all of Southeastern Michigan, in
particular." As I stated previously Wershe has never been arrested
for, or charged with, any “violent collateral crimes” and in a full inquiry the
Michigan Attorney General’s office and the Wayne County Prosecutor would be
forced to admit this is a totally false accusation by the former Wayne County
Prosecutor.
16. The
purported Duggan letter states: "Wershe
profited from the countless drug sales that his gang made, and the criminal
enterprise that he built..." There are no court records—local or
federal—to indicate Mr. Wershe had a gang that made “countless” drug sales and
as noted previously Wershe has never been charged with operating or
participating in a continuing criminal enterprise.
17.
The purported Duggan letter states: "I have been contacted by many people
including law enforcement officers from both the federal and state levels that
are currently unwilling to publicly oppose Wershe's release for fear of
retaliation against them, their families, and continue to be fearful that
Wershe would even be considered for release." The only witness
intimidation I have found in my inquiry into the Wershe 2003 parole hearing is
alleged to have been perpetrated by police officers.
I
have not found any evidence to indicate the Michigan Parole Board made any
effort to work with prosecutors to obtain confidential testimony from any
implied intimidated witness, including law enforcement officers who allegedly
fear for their safety and the safety of their families if they testify about
Richard J. Wershe, Jr.
18. I
submitted a Michigan Freedom of Information Act request to current Wayne County
Prosecutor Kym Worthy on February 6, 2015, requesting copies of any and all
documentation supporting the claims and assertions contained in the purported
2003 Duggan letter to the Michigan Parole board. In a response dated February
10, 2015, to my FOIA request for documentation supporting the purported Duggan
letter, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office advised me: "Your request is denied. After a diligent search for the records,
we have determined and certify the records do not exist."
19. I have
discovered in my research that some law enforcement documentation submitted at
the Wershe 2003 parole hearing is, in some cases, highly misleading and in
other cases false. For example, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special
Agent Richard Crock submitted to the Parole Board a report of a statement from
a confidential informant claiming Richard J. Wershe, Jr. sold weapons to an
associate of the notorious Chambers Brothers drug gang. The Chambers Brothers
gang was tried and convicted in federal court for the Eastern District of
Michigan. Agent Crock neglected to tell the Parole Board that the DEA
confidential informant—Terry Colbert—whose statement to the DEA was provided to
the Michigan Parole Board during the Wershe 2003 parole hearing, was indicted
and convicted by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Detroit for repeated perjury
before a federal grand jury and at trial. (See 977 F.2d 203 No. 91-2057) Colbert was indicted,
tried, convicted and sentenced on July 31, 1991 and DEA records indicate Agent Crock
was fully aware of this fact at the time, yet failed to mention it to the
Parole Board in 2003.
20. I have
discovered in my research that another DEA investigative report submitted to
the Michigan Parole Board in the 2003 Wershe hearing claims Roy Grisson, a
Wershe associate, was shot and seriously wounded in an attempted murder ordered
by Mr. Wershe. The DEA-6 report about Mr. Grisson indicates he supplied Agent
Crock and other investigators with information about the drug activities of the
so-called Wershe organization. In interviews, Mr. Grisson told me the shooting
was the result of a plain armed robbery attempt and had nothing to do with Mr.
Wershe. Furthermore, Mr. Grisson states he was kidnapped from the hospital by
law enforcement officers as he was recovering from his wounds and taken to a
suburban motel where he was “sweated” and “pressured” to make false statements
against Wershe. When he refused Mr. Grisson states the police put him in a van
and drove him to downtown Detroit where they “dumped” him in front of a retail
store. Mr. Grisson has told me any statement in the DEA files purportedly
signed by him is a false document with a forged signature and he is prepared to
testify under oath to the truthfulness of this claim if called upon to do so.
21. I have noted in my research that with
the exception of Special Agent Crock of the DEA, not one of the law enforcement
officers testifying against Wershe’s parole ever had any contact with him in
their police work.
22. I have read a sworn affidavit by William Rice, the former head of
the Homicide unit of the Detroit Police Department, that he was ordered
“through channels” to testify against Wershe. Rice further stated he was
provided with Wershe’s federal grand jury testimony as part of a briefing binder
to help him prepare to testify at the Wershe parole hearing. I have spoken directly with U.S. District
Court Judge Avern Cohn of the Eastern District of Michigan who told me he has
never unsealed Wershe’s federal grand jury testimony. Thus it would appear that
someone committed a felony in releasing sealed federal grand jury testimony to
prepare witnesses to testify against Richard J. Wershe, Jr. at the 2003
hearing. I have not been able to find any evidence this serious violation has
ever been investigated.
23. I have noted in my research that
three (3) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents testified in favor of
Wershe’s parole while two (2) Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents
testified against his parole, yet the Michigan Parole Board asked no questions
and made no effort to reconcile this direct contradiction between the views of
federal law enforcement agents regarding the advisability of parole for Wershe.
24.
I have noted in my research that contrary to claims by the Wayne County
Prosecutor that Richard J. Wershe, Jr. was a drug “kingpin”, several convicted
major drug dealers who were actively selling drugs in Detroit during the time
Mr. Wershe was on the streets have stated on the record to other reporters and
to me that Richard J. Wershe, Jr. was never a major drug trafficker or
“kingpin.”
One Detroit drug figure from that era responded to a question from me
about Wershe’s “kingpin” status by posing two rhetorical questions:
·
“Does
it make any sense to think a white teenager was giving drug trafficking orders
to violent adult black men with prison records?
·
And
does it make any sense to think a white teenager could possess, control and
distribute millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine in Detroit’s black drug trade
without getting killed?”
I make this affidavit on my own
volition without any remuneration or promises from anyone. If called to testify
I would state under oath that the foregoing information is true and correct to
the best of my knowledge.
Signature: ___________________
Address: _____________________
_____________________
SUBSCRIBED
AND SWORN TO before this ___ day of ______, 2016 by
____________________
______________________
Notary Public – California
My Commission expires:______________