A former convicted drug dealer and FBI informant on Tuesday filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Detroit Police Department and several retired FBI agents for allegedly coercing him into helping officials when he was just 17-years-old.
Richard Wershe Jr. filed a lawsuit alleging that he was pressured by local police and federal agents to be an informant, repeatedly sending him into drug operations before abandoning him once he faced legal consequences, the Associated Press reported.
“The justice system hasn’t been fair to me over the last 33 years,” Wershe said in a statement. “This needed to be done. The truth absolutely needed to be told. ... Everything that we say will be backed up by documents and FBI agents.”
Wershe served 32 years in a Michigan prison for his 1987 drug trafficking crime before he was released in 2017. He then spent time in prison in the state of Florida for an unrelated crime.
In 1988, Wershe was sentenced to life in prison under Michigan’s “650-Lifer Law,” an anti-drug dealing law that mandates that if an individual would be sentenced to life in prison without parole if convicted of possessing more than 650 grams of cocaine or heroin.
Despite this law, Wershe was paroled in 2017, when he was then turned over to U.S. Marshals and sent to Florida to serve time for a 2006 crime he committed while behind bars.
His attorney, Nabih Ayad, said that he expects the defense to argue that Wershe’s constitutional claims occurred too long ago for the case to brought to court.
“This is a unique case. ... Our Constitution, our justice system, and God-given right to all humanity calls on this court to finally bring justice to a man whose life has been taken from him at the tender age of 14 all the way up to 51 years of age,” the lawsuit states.
Wershe was the youngest FBI informant in the history of the United States, according to his legal team.
His life inspired the 2018 film “White Boy Rick,” featuring Matthew McConaughey and Richie Merritt. The movie's title was a reference to Wershe’s childhood nickname, which he despised.