Ryan Leaf kicked out of drug treatment center

HELENA – Former NFL and Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf has been moved from a drug treatment center to the Montana State Prison for threatening a staff member and violating his treatment plan, a corrections official said Thursday.

Leaf was charged last spring with breaking into two houses and stealing prescription painkillers near his hometown of Great Falls. He pleaded guilty in May to burglary and criminal possession of dangerous drugs, and his five-year sentence called for spending nine months in a locked drug treatment facility as an alternative to prison.

The Montana Department of Corrections released on Thursday a statement by Great Falls regional probation and parole administrator Dawn Handa that said Leaf will now serve his sentence in the Deer Lodge prison.

Leaf attorney Kenneth Olson did not return calls for comment.

Adult Community Corrections Division Director Pam Bunke wrote that Leaf was too great a security risk to leave in a community setting, and that staff had exhausted all resources in keeping him there. Leaf told his roommate at the treatment center that he wanted to drag a program staffer by his hair, according to the document approving Leaf’s transfer to prison.

Leaf will remain in the state prison until at least June 30, when he will receive a hearing before the state Board of Pardons and Parole.

James Farren, the district attorney in the Randall County, Texas, where Leaf was given probation in a plea agreement for drug charges in 2010, said his office will move to bring Leaf back and he could receive more prison time.