By Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 18, 1999; Page B1

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan thought he had seen the last of Leo Gonzales Wright nearly three years ago when he sentenced the two-time convicted killer to a term of life without parole, vowing to do everything within his power to ensure Wright would never leave a federal penitentiary.

And so, the judge said yesterday, he was aghast when he found out that Wright hasn't spent a day in a federal prison for the 1995 killing of lawyer Bettina Pruckmayr near an automated teller machine in Northeast Washington. Instead, the D.C. Department of Corrections has been housing Wright at its problem-plagued Lorton Correctional Complex in Fairfax.

Sullivan said he was just as appalled to learn that a warden at Lorton had permitted Wright to leave the complex to attend his mother's wake. The warden acted without notifying the court despite instructions to do so.

"The warden may very well find himself incarcerated in one of his jails," Sullivan said. "I'm not going to take this lightly. . . . I felt very strongly he should never be released to go anywhere."

Sullivan summoned corrections officials, prosecutors and Wright himself to his courtroom in hopes of holding someone accountable for the latest in a series of mistakes involving Wright and the criminal justice system. District officials said they had no immediate answers but promised to report to the judge at a follow-up hearing June 14.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Kohl, who alerted Sullivan to Wright's presence at Lorton, told the judge: "When it comes to Leo Wright, there's a curse in the Department of Corrections and their ability to handle him. The U.S. attorney's office is as flabbergasted and astonished as the court."

Wright was paroled in 1993 after spending nearly 17 years in prison for the 1976 murder of D.C. taxicab driver Joseph N. Woodbury. He already was in violation of the terms of his parole when he killed again, repeatedly stabbing Pruckmayr in December 1995.

Pruckmayr's slaying led to a civil lawsuit and an investigation by the D.C. inspector general's office, both of which exposed lapses in Wright's supervision. The inspector general's report, released in January, questioned the decision to release Wright in the first place, noting 38 incidents in which Wright caused trouble at Lorton. The report also found that Wright should have been reconfined before killing Pruckmayr because he had been arrested on a drug charge.

Wright pleaded guilty in Sullivan's courtroom in September 1996 to killing the 26-year-old Pruckmayr. A key component of Sullivan's sentence then required that Wright be sent to a federal prison. Sullivan said he found Wright to be "the most violent, dangerous person I've ever encountered" and said he wanted to be certain that Wright would always be behind bars.

Unbeknown to the judge, however, the D.C. Department of Corrections transported Wright from the D.C. jail to a prison at the Lorton complex. There, he was incarcerated not only for Pruckmayr's death but also for violating his earlier parole.

In August 1997, Lorton warden Frank Crose agreed to permit Wright to attend his mother's wake. Wright was shackled in belly chains, leg irons and handcuffs when he was escorted to the funeral home by two armed officers. But Crose, who no longer works for the city, did not seek Sullivan's approval. Sullivan said he intends to order Crose into court for questioning.

Pruckmayr's family was outraged upon reading in the inspector general's report that Wright was at Lorton. Family members contacted Kohl, who turned to the judge. Sullivan then also learned of the trip to the funeral home.

"The whole system is ludicrous," said Gregory Pruckmayr, the victim's brother. "Lorton was like a homecoming for him. They should be sending him somewhere out in Nebraska, as far away from his friends as possible."

U.S. Marshal Donald W. Horton said Wright is now in federal custody and headed for a federal facility.