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Sister of White Boy Rick angry about how her family was portrayed in movie

Posted at 5:28 PM, Sep 21, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-23 13:21:18-04

The new blockbuster movie "White Boy Rick," starring Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey, is on the big screen right now.

It's about the life of teenage drug dealer Rick Wershe Jr. who remains behind bars after being sent to jail at 18. His sister is speaking out about her anger over the way her family was portrayed in the movie.

Dawn Scott says, "We were portrayed in the film as low-class dirt poor scuzz bags, I don't know what other words to use, not the way it was."

Dawn and her brother were raised by their dad on the east side of Detroit in what used to be a middle-class neighborhood. She says the way her grandparents, who are deceased, were depicted on the big screen hurt the most. They helped raise them and lived right across the street.

"They look like a bunch of drunks that just didn't care, wild and crazy, but they are the best people you'd ever meet," Dawn says.

Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey plays Rick's dad.

"What upset me the most, he said my dad couldn't handle you kids, he had Rick sell drugs because he couldn't cut the mustard, but that's the farthest from the truth."

Dawn was only 17 when her brother, only 14, started wheeling and dealing drugs. Dawn says he was an undercover informant for the FBI for 6 months to a year until he was shot and severely injured.

"Here they were using a child as an underaged informant, which I would say was against all types of laws," she said. "I did not move home until after Rick was shot, I had to move home to take care of him."

Unlike in the movie, she says her dad, who also made statements to the FBI, was outraged and wanted Rick out of the drug business when he came home with $50,000 in drug money.

"Rick refused so my dad took the money and threw my ex-husband and Rick out of the house," Dawn said.

She said Rick bought a house down the street and kept rolling. Crack cocaine was the cheap drug of choice.

Dawn says, "Selling drugs is like a gambler, when you win that jackpot you want more, bigger ones out there."

Carolyn Clifford says, "In the movie, you said they portrayed you as a heroin addict."

Dawn says, "Well, they never really say, but that's what we're all assuming, that's the drug of choice just by the way she acts and I have never done heroin in my life."

Dawn says what they did get right was how "White Boy Rick" came to be.

"That's how Rick was, that's what Rick did, he did his own thing," she said.

Dawn says what you see in this Hollywood film was born out of the media circus surrounding "White Boy Rick" that began in Detroit.

Dawn says, "It was like he was a rock star, it made him more than he was."

Dawn says she and her family signed two different movie contracts years ago but refused to sign a third for this version of the movie. She says she and her family were never consulted for the film and never received a dime.

Now, after supporting her brother during his life behind bars for 25 years, she's hoping when he's released in 2020 they can heal from old family feuds and live as brother and sister again.