DETROIT – "White Boy" Rick Wershe's sister spoke about her family's relief Friday after a parole board voted to release him from prison.
Wershe spent nearly 30 years behind bars, and Dawn Wershe said this day is long overdue.
"I'm overjoyed," Dawn Wershe said. "I expected it. I couldn't be happier."
The parole board announced after 11 a.m. Friday that at least six of its 10 members had voted to release Wershe from prison. He met with two members of the board for a hearing on June 8.
"He is so anti-drug now that he could be a prosecutor," Dawn Wershe said. "He will not commit any crimes. He will not be back in prison."
Dawn Wershe said she can't wait to tell her brother she loves him. He was the longest serving nonviolent juvenile offender in Michigan history.
Dawn Wershe said their mother regrets that she lost so much time with her son, but is just happy to have him back after so long.
"If he's got to push her in a wheelchair, then it is what it is," Dawn Wershe said.
She said she's praying Florida law enforcement officials will drop the remaining 22 months Wershe owes for his role in a car theft ring.
"I really think that Florida's going to say, 'You know what? This guy's had enough. Let him go home,'" Dawn Wershe said.
You can watch the full interview with Dawn Wershe in the video posted above.