HELENA, Mont. -- Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf has been moved from a drug treatment center to the Montana State Prison for threatening a staff member and other unspecified behavioral problems at the center, a corrections official said Thursday.
The former San Diego Chargers and Washington State Cougars quarterback 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 reduced charges, and his five-year sentence called for spending nine months in a locked drug treatment facility as an alternative to prison.
Leaf said then that he was looking forward to the treatment at Nexus Treatment Center in Lewistown. But on Thursday, the Montana Department of Corrections released 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.
"The Montana Department of Corrections terminated Leaf from the treatment program and placed him in prison after he was found guilty of behavior that violated conditions of his drug treatment program. The violations included threatening a program staff member," Handa said in the statement.
Leaf's attorney, Kenneth Olson, did not immediately return a call for comment.
Leaf was serving nine months of a five-year sentence at the Nexus Treatment Center after pleading guilty to burglary and criminal possession of dangerous drugs.
Montana Department of Corrections documents released Thursday say Leaf told his roommate he wanted to drag a program staffer by his hair. Leaf also wrote that he wanted to throw the staffer against the wall and smash his glass into the man's head.
Adult Community Corrections Division administrator Pam Bunke writes Leaf was too great a security risk to leave in a community setting. A disciplinary hearing was held Jan. 9.
The Great Falls Tribune first reported Leaf's imprisonment Thursday.
It was not immediately clear how the change would affect a probation violation he is facing in Texas for 2010 drug charges.
Leaf was the No. 2 pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, but his short-lived pro career earned him the reputation as one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press
