Rick Wershe Jr. as a teen and an adult.
Update: Tuesday, 1:35 p.m. -- Rick Wershe, Jr. met with the head of the state parole board in Manistee for a 45-minute pre-parole interview Tuesday.
“I believe it went very, very well,” Ralph Musilli, Wershe’s attorney, tells Zahra Huber of WWJ. “He was asking questions of Richard about his background, his involvement in crime, what he intended to do when he got out, what his support system was like, and Rick answered them all candidly, truthfully.”
Wershe hopes the meeting leads to a full hearing.
Original post, Tuesday morning
Convicted Detroit drug trafficker Richard Wershe Jr., 47, who has been in prison since he was a teenager, is hoping Tuesday is the start of what will soon become his key to freedom.
Wershe, aka "White Boy Rick," will meet face to face with Michael Eagen, head of the Michigan Parole Board, on Tuesday in Manistee where he is serving a life sentence at the Oaks Correctional Facility, reports Kevin Dietz of WDIV. If the meeting goes well, Wershe will get a hearing before the full board, which could cut him free after 29 years. That hearing could come around June, reports the Detroit Free Press.
"It would be overwhelming, to say the least, to be able to hug my family and sit down and pray with them and eat dinner and lunch with them," Wershe tells WDIV.
He was denied parole in 2003, 2007 and 2012,
Wershe's attorney, Ralph Muscilli, will be at Wershe's side for support.
"The last time he had a pre-parole interview was in 2009, and he asked me to be his friend, so I drove up to northern Michigan through a blizzard and we had an interview that I thought went very well, only to have no consideration again," Muscilli said. "This time around, I think they are going to give him a parole hearing."
Up until recently, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy had opposed his release, portraying him as a danger to society. She has now publicly said she will not oppose his release.
"If nobody objects to it, they can very well have a very, very cursory public hearing and just grant him his parole," Muscilli says.
Wershe says he's cautiously optimistic. "You hope it's over with after almost 30 years in here," the inmate adds.
