In
2003, the Michigan Parole Board considered releasing Richard J. “White Boy
Rick” Wershe Jr. from prison. He had been sentenced to life for a non-violent
but major drug conviction while he was a teenager. One of the most devastating
arguments against Wershe’s parole came in the form of a letter from then-Wayne
County Prosecutor Michael Duggan.
The man who is now the Mayor of the City of Detroit claims
he “doesn’t recall” the letter to the
parole board but he recently sidestepped the issue in an interview with WDIV-TV
reporter Kevin Dietz, saying his “office” made a recommendation in 2003 and now
it’s current prosecutor Kym Worthy’s “job to decide, in 2016, what’s
appropriate.
Maybe so, but it’s Mike Duggan’s job to man up and own up
to the misstatements and out and out lies in a letter under his name about a
prisoner serving a life sentence. If he can defend that letter (he can’t), he
should go for it. If not, he should do the right thing in the interest of
justice.
The list of people who are responsible or irresponsible in
the continued imprisonment of Richard J. Wershe, Jr. is long. I would call them
a Basket of Deplorables but that term has already been taken by someone else
who has her own issues with what is true and what’s a lie. But I digress.
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| Mike Duggan - Former Wayne Coiunty Prosecutor, now mayor of the City of Detroit. |
One of those near the top of the list is Michael Duggan,
the sitting Mayor of the City of Detroit. He wrote, or his office wrote in his
name, a vicious letter to the Michigan Parole Board in 2003 opposing parole for
Wershe. You can read that letter here.
If it didn’t have such serious ramifications the Duggan
letter would be laughable in its comic book-like claims about Wershe. Nearly
every alleged statement of fact in the Duggan letter about Wershe can be
challenged, if not disproven outright. Here are some examples with comic
book-style bold text and exclamation points.
“Wershe’s
gang!” (What gang? There are no police or court records of a
Wershe gang. None. Zero.)
“Several
members of Wershe’s gang were found dead!” (There was no gang. One friend
of his was murdered in a romantic triangle. Duggan, current prosecutor Worthy
and the Detroit Police cannot cite one, much less “several” dead bodies
associated with Wershe.)
“Ruthless
drug dealer!” (There’s no evidence Wershe ever operated crack
houses. He tried, but failed, to become a cocaine import-wholesaler. As a white
teenager in a black city Wershe didn’t have the street network—or gang—to sell
crack cocaine.)
“Notorious
violent kingpin!” (There is nothing in federal or state court
records—nothing—to support the claim that Wershe was a “kingpin.” He was never
charged or prosecuted under the “kingpin” drug laws and he was never named in
any drug case involving Detroit’s true drug kingpins of that era. The “notorious
violent kingpin” lie cannot be supported by anything in the record.)
“His
crimes involved firearms!” (No they didn’t. Wershe’s court records
don’t include any felony firearm—gun charges—period. This includes prosecutions
by Duggan’s office back then, prosecutions by his predecessor, and prosecutions
by his successor. It’s another lie that cannot be supported by the evidence and
the court records.)
“The
father (Richard Wershe, Sr.) was believed to be an electronics technician for
the Mafia!” (Believed by whom? Agents of the FBI—the only
law enforcement in Detroit investigating organized crime—literally laugh at
this one. Wershe’s father dabbled in electronics and satellite dishes and may
have done business with some questionable characters, but there is no
evidence—none—that he was an associate of the Detroit Mafia family.)
“Fear
of retaliation!” (There is nothing—not a single police report or
court filing—to indicate Rick Wershe ever intimated any witnesses. Indeed, just
the opposite is true; two key witnesses said they feared and hid from the
police, not Rick Wershe. Two men have said separately that the police got rough
with them when they refused to give false testimony against Wershe.)
“Menace
to society!” (Wershe was never charged with a violent
crime. Neither were any members of his “gang”—because he never had a gang.)
SOCK! POW! CRASH! BOOM!
As Informant America
has noted in previous posts, the Duggan letter is full of inaccuracies,
unsupportable accusations and outright lies.
Mike Duggan should be ashamed to have his named associated
with these three pages of slander. He needs to be called out for allowing lies
and distortions to be put on the record in his name.
Duggan’s name carries a lot of weight in the criminal
justice system because of who he was (a big city prosecutor) and who he is (a
big city mayor.) Mike Duggan needs to
stand up for truth and justice. He needs to either a) publicly disavow the
letter under his name to the parole board about Rick Wershe or b) call for a
public hearing to air the facts, truth-and-reconciliation-style about a man who
remains in prison instead of on parole partly due to the falsehoods about Rick Wershe
in his letter.
I can guarantee you
he won’t do “b” because he can’t. There is no evidence in police files, in
prosecutor files, in court files to back up most of the 2003 letter. There is
nothing in the federal court records, either.
In 2015 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request
from me for the files and information supporting the claims in the Duggan
letter, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office famously denied my request,
stating that after a “diligent search” they “certify” the “files do not exist.”
They want Wershe to remain in prison until he dies but they didn’t bother to
keep any evidence or documentation to support that position if called upon by a
court to do so.
The Detroit Police Department, in response to another
Freedom of Information Act request, told me they had purged all of their files
on Richard J. Wershe, Jr. except for a single file card that said he was convicted
in Recorder’s Court on a charge of possession of cocaine over 650 grams and
that he was sentenced to life in prison.
A recent Freedom of Information Act request from me shows
Duggan doesn’t think he has anything to worry about in terms of a besmirched
reputation due to the three pages of Duggan-letter falsehoods against Rick
Wershe still floating around as a prosecution exhibit in the effort to deny Wershe a parole.
The City Law Department says there are no internal memos,
emails or any other communications between Duggan and his administration
regarding the Wershe controversy. It was and is an ugly stain on Duggan’s
reputation for honesty and truthfulness but it’s not on his radar screen.
In the Wershe saga the Wayne County Prosecutor has been in
the spotlight. The police have been in the spotlight. The state appellate
courts have been in the spotlight. The federal courts have been in the
spotlight. The Michigan Parole Board has been in the spotlight. Almost everyone
in this epic miscarriage of justice has been in the spotlight except Mike
Duggan. It’s his turn.
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