[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 91 (Thursday, June 24, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7571-S7573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I want to call the attention of the Senate 
to a couple of items that relate to an appropriations bill we will be 
marking up this afternoon in about half an hour in the Senate 
Appropriations Committee.
  We are going to mark up three bills. I will be there as a member of 
that committee. One of the bills deals with the District of Columbia. I 
have spoken on the floor in recent weeks about an issue dealing with 
the criminal justice system in the District of Columbia. I want to 
comment on it again in light of a news story in today's paper, this 
Thursday morning's Washington Post.
  Some while ago, a young boy was rollerblading in the District of 
Columbia--a matter of weeks ago--and he was hit and killed by a car 
that then sped away. That car allegedly was driven by a man who was 
arrested, Shane DeLeon. He was arrested and put in jail and then, of 
course, let out of jail, as is so often the case these days.
  Shane DeLeon, it says in the paper today, walked away from custody. 
It says:

       The man charged in the hit-and-run death of an American 
     University student walked away from a District halfway house 
     Tuesday and remained free last night. . . .

  I want to read a couple of paragraphs because it describes, I think, 
the chronic problem in the criminal justice system in the District of 
Columbia and, I should say, elsewhere as well.

       Shane Simeon DeLeon failed to return to the Community 
     Correctional Center on New York Avenue NE by his 11 p.m. 
     curfew, according to D.C. Department of Corrections 
     officials. [He] was allowed out of the facility from 7 a.m. 
     to 11 p.m. to remodel the basement of his girlfriend's home 
     on MacArthur Boulevard in Northwest Washington. . . .
       This is the third time [this fellow] has broken curfew. The 
     first two times, he was under home detention.

  Now he walks away again, this fellow who is facing second-degree 
murder charges.
  I have spoken on the floor a lot about a case that was in the news a 
couple of weeks ago. I spoke about this case some years ago on a number 
of occasions and then again a couple of weeks ago. It is the case 
involving the murder of a young woman, Bettina Pruckmayr. Bettina 
Pruckmayr was a young attorney here in Washington, DC. She was abducted 
late at night and forced to go to an ATM machine and forced to withdraw 
money; and then her murderer, Leo Gonzales Wright, stabbed her over 30 
times in a brutal murder.
  It turns out, a couple of weeks ago, after this murderer was 
sentenced to Federal prison--3 years later, they discovered he had not 
been put in Federal prison, he was still out at Lorton. The Federal 
judge was justifiably angry, wondering, why couldn't they even get that 
right to send this murderer to Federal prison? My understanding is, he 
is in Federal prison now.
  But the story in today's paper about a fellow facing second-degree 
murder charges simply walking away--he was allowed, by the way, while 
facing second-degree murder charges, to go help remodel the basement of 
his girlfriend's house from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.--why is a fellow facing 
murder charges walking around, remodeling his girlfriend's basement?
  It is the same story as that of Leo Gonzales Wright. What was he 
doing walking around on the evening that he eventually murdered Bettina 
Pruckmayr? Here is a man who robbed a convenience store and shot the 
convenience store owner; he robbed a cab driver and murdered the cab 
driver; and then he was sentenced to prison for a minimum of 20 years--
not to be let out before 20 years--and he was let out nearly 5 years 
early, despite the fact that in prison he had 33 different violations 
for assault and drugs and weapons. Then he was let out on the streets 5 
years before his sentence ended, and, while on the streets, he 
committed theft and tested positive for drugs. When he was brought 
before the parole board, this fellow, who was a twice-convicted 
murderer, was told: No; you can stay out on the streets on parole. 
Taking drugs as a violent offender is not serious enough to put you 
back in prison. Theft is not serious enough to put you back in prison.

  So the message is: The authorities say that a violent offender can 
commit a theft, can take drugs, can remain on the streets, and remain 
on the streets in a manner that allowed him, on that fateful evening, 
to kill this young attorney named Bettina Pruckmayr.
  A couple of weeks ago, 3 years after this man was sentenced to 
Federal prison, the Federal judge found out he was not in Federal 
prison at all--he was in Lorton--and the judge said: What on Earth is 
going on?
  I looked into it in order to find out what happened. It is a mess. At 
every step along the way, this inspector's general report--which is 
some 50 pages long--shows one massive problem after another. This 
system is completely devoid of common sense. It is a system that says 
to the fellow who was up for second-degree murder: You go ahead and fix 
your girlfriend's basement. We'll give you every day, all day, from 7 
a.m. to 11 p.m. to do that. Then he walks away on them, and they are 
surprised. Or a system that says to another fellow: Yes, we know you 
are violent, we know you are a murderer, but it is fine if you are on 
the streets taking drugs, and it does not matter if you are convicted 
of theft or charged with theft. That is a system, in my judgment, that 
is defective.
  I intend to raise some questions at the markup today with respect to 
the District of Columbia. I notice my colleague from Illinois has come 
to the floor. He has raised questions that go directly to these issues.
  This is the District of Columbia that says: We have a lot of money we 
want to offer for tax cuts. They do not have enough money, apparently, 
to have prison space to keep people convicted of murder in prison.
  The Senator from Illinois has asked the questions now a good number 
of times publicly: What about that? What about your priorities? What 
about your responsibility to the memory of Bettina Pruckmayr, who was 
murdered by someone who should have never been on the streets to murder 
anybody? He should have been in prison, but he was let out early.
  This fellow Leo Gonzales Wright was in Lorton Prison. Do you know why 
he was let out early from there? Because he apparently was allowed into 
the prison system to change his own records; so when they looked at his 
records, they had all been altered to say he was a good guy when, in 
fact, he was a bad guy. It is just unforgivable what is happening on 
the streets in this country, especially in the District of 
Columbia. And one additional point: It is not just there. There is a 
county adjacent to the District of Columbia in which two fellows are, I 
believe, on trial to be convicted for the murder of a couple people in 
a Mr. Donut shop. I asked my staff to look at the backgrounds of those 
folks. It seems the same two people carjacked a fellow on the 
interstate around this beltway, the same two people just months ago 
carjacked someone in a violent carjacking out on the streets so they 
could murder a couple people at a Mr. Donut late at night.

  Day after day we read this, especially in the District of Columbia. I 
am sick and tired of it.
  I will offer a couple amendments. I will consult carefully with my 
friend from Illinois, who is the ranking member on that subcommittee. 
One of the amendments is, if you are on parole in the District of 
Columbia for a violent crime and you are picked up on the streets as 
having taken drugs, you ought to find that your next address is back in 
that same jail cell. We ought not have violent criminals on parole 
taking drugs and then have parole officers say that is alright; that it 
is a minor infraction.

[[Page S7572]]

  If you are a violent offender on parole taking drugs, my friend, your 
address ought to be a jail cell, once again, to the end of your full 
term.
  I intend to offer that amendment. I hope that is the sort of thing we 
can get passed.
  I yield to the Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator for raising this.
  In just a few moments, we will go to the Appropriations Committee and 
consider the D.C. appropriations. I ask my friend from North Dakota to 
follow with me for just a moment on some of the facts that we will 
face.
  I do love the District of Columbia. I went to college and law school 
here, and it is a beautiful city. I think anyone who has been here more 
than 15 minutes knows that it has serious problems when it comes to the 
crime rate, when it comes to the status in schools. The District of 
Columbia has an annual budget of about $5 billion; $1.8 billion comes 
directly from the Federal Government. We are big players when it comes 
to the District's budget.
  The District of Columbia's city council has decided that things are 
going so well in this city, when it comes to crime and schools, they 
have $59 million that they are going to give back to the residents in 
tax cuts.
  To a staffer of mine the other day, at the end of the day, I said: Do 
you need a ride home?
  He said: I only live 5 blocks from the Capitol Building of the United 
States. I ordinarily walk, but last week a woman was stabbed to death 
in my neighborhood 5 blocks from the United States Capitol Building.
  I said: Do you know what you need in your neighborhood, according to 
the D.C. city council? You need a tax break.
  Let's get serious about it. The first thing the residents of the 
District of Columbia want is safety in the streets and quality schools. 
This D.C. city council has turned its back on that. They said: We are 
going to acknowledge the fact that we are the worst in the Nation when 
it comes to infant mortality, the worst in the Nation when it comes to 
the basic standards of judging children, and yet we are going to stop 
spending money and helping these kids. We are going to give it back in 
a tax cut.
  Then they turn around, wanting an additional $17 million for a 
scholarship program, money that is going to be taken out of the Labor-
HHS appropriations.
  What could that money do? It is money that goes to the National 
Institutes of Health for medical research. They want $17 million of 
that to spend on a scholarship program, while they give away $59 
million.
  I concur with the Senator from North Dakota. I have never felt it was 
my congressional responsibility to be the mayor of this town or a 
member of the city council. But when they are absorbing Federal money, 
we have the right to say: You have done something which is shameful. To 
give away $59 million worth of problems that this city faces is just 
unconscionable.

  If you walked into any Senate office or any House office and asked 
the staff members: Has anybody here been mugged, has your home been 
broken into or your car? You would be shocked. It is a common 
occurrence in this town.
  We have to do something about it. I salute the Senator from North 
Dakota. I hope that he is aware of the debate we are about to have in a 
few moments.
  Mr. DORGAN. I am fully aware of that debate and in full support of 
the statements the Senator from Illinois has made.
  Let me put up a chart that shows what has sparked my ire. I am not 
someone who comes to the floor to beat up on the District of Columbia, 
nor is the Senator from Illinois. I have simply had a bellyful of this 
behavior by folks in the criminal justice system in the District of 
Columbia.
  This headline ran a couple of weeks ago: Killer Sent to Wrong Prison 
after Second Murder. This headline is referring to Leo Gonzales Wright 
who murdered Bettina Pruckmayr. Three years after he was sentenced by 
the Federal judge, they still couldn't get him in the cell that he was 
supposed to be in.
  The point is, the inspector general report--I urge all my colleagues 
to read it--shows a system that is totally corrupt. It portrays a 
system that says to a violent murderer: You are out on parole. You are 
out early. You can take drugs. You can be charged with theft, and we 
don't care. You get to stay on America's streets.
  A city that can't keep violent offenders off its streets and behind 
bars is a city that can't keep its streets safe. American citizens 
deserve better, especially in America's Capital, Washington, D.C.
  The recommendations of the inspector general are really interesting. 
I read this at home the other night. When I finished reading it, I 
shook my head and said: This is such an incompetent system. It doesn't 
take rocket science to know what you have to do. When someone holds up 
a convenience store and shoots the owner, when the same person then 
decides to rob and murder a cabdriver, and then when that person is let 
out of prison early and decides to take drugs and steal, does that 
person belong on our streets so that this wonderful young attorney 
Bettina Pruckmayr can show up at an ATM machine one night, only to be 
savagely murdered by this animal? Does this person belong on the 
streets? Of course not.
  Who was responsible for putting this person on the street? The 
criminal justice system. Person after person after person failed, and 
the result is a dead woman, a dead, innocent, young woman, full of 
promise, who met a killer on the streets of our Nation's Capital.
  I say again, when we come to the floor--I will go to the 
Appropriations Committee in 15 minutes--I will offer two amendments, 
one of them dealing with drugs. I would have thrown this man back in 
prison immediately, and he wouldn't have been anywhere near Bettina 
Pruckmayr to be able to murder her that evening. I would have said: If 
he is found with drugs, as he was repeatedly, having been a formerly 
convicted murderer, that man goes back to a prison cell. That is just 
common sense.
  Do you know, the policy of the District of Columbia was that drug use 
by someone on parole was not a serious enough offense to put them back 
in prison? What on earth can they be thinking? They are going to give a 
tax cut, but they don't have enough money for prison cells to keep 
violent people behind bars.
  Shame on those people. Shame on those people who make those 
judgments. The murder of a young woman and so many others are on their 
shoulders.
  Mr. LEAHY. Will the Senator yield.
  Mr. DORGAN. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. LEAHY. We represent, I believe, the two States with the lowest 
crime rates in the country. Our States are about the population of the 
District of Columbia. I expect either one of us could pick out a 2- or 
3-day period last year or in this past calendar year in the District of 
Columbia where more murders occurred than our States put together for 
the year.
  Without sounding like a poster child for the gun lobby or something 
else, I express one frustration, also watching what has happened in 
this recent tragic killing of a grandmother, when what appears to be, 
at least if the news accounts are accurate, people arguing over whose 
car bumped into whose car, and suddenly there is a gang on the street 
armed like the marines landing in Kosovo, and now with the nationwide 
spotlight on this crime, the police go into action and suddenly start 
confiscating guns.
  I ask the Senator from North Dakota: Is it not his understanding, as 
it is mine, that the District of Columbia has virtually the toughest 
gun laws in the country? The carrying of these weapons or possession of 
them is a crime. Yet have you seen an awful lot of people go to prison 
for carrying these weapons, even though they are found with them all 
the time?
  Mr. DORGAN. In answer, I think there is a leniency here in this 
system that is unforgivable. The case that the Senator from Vermont 
just mentioned is referenced in the newspaper today. That case is the 
grandmother who was trying to grab these children and get them off the 
streets as the bullets began to fly last Monday. It says in this same 
story this morning that Derrick Jackson, age 19, has been charged with 
the first-degree-murder death of Helen Foster-El by stray bullets on 
Monday night. He had walked away

[[Page S7573]]

from a juvenile home in April. He had been placed there in connection 
with juvenile drug and stolen vehicle charges. I will bet you that if 
you and I take the time to try to get this person's record, we will 
find a record as long as your arm and that person ought not to have 
been anywhere near that neighborhood to be able to fire a gun.
  I will bet you that the record would justify, by any standard of any 
reasonable person, that this young man ought to have been in jail. But 
he was out on the streets with a gun. I don't have the record, but this 
is a guy who walked away from a halfway house or a juvenile home in 
April. Now it is almost the end of June.
  Mr. LEAHY. If the Senator will yield further, since he has already 
read that, if he will look at some of the numbers of unclosed cases, or 
the number of times when leads are not followed up, the number of 
complaints I have received in my office, and people making complaints 
to police departments that have never been followed up, witnesses never 
sought--we spend an awful lot more in law enforcement in this city than 
they do in the whole States of North Dakota and Vermont. There are a 
lot more people, a lot more officers available. I know many of them do 
excellent work, and they put their lives on the line, and some lose 
their lives. But I also know there are a lot of areas in this city 
where drug selling is out in the open and a matter of public knowledge, 
and where illegal possession of weapons is a matter of open knowledge, 
and nothing happens until the spotlight of one of these terrible 
tragedies occurs.
  So I appreciate the Senator's comments.
  Mr. DORGAN. Let me make one final point. There is one other part of 
this, the case I have described, the Leo Gonzales Wright case.
  I have always thought that in this country, in our criminal system, 
we ought to have two standards, one for violent offenders and one for 
nonviolent offenders. In every State, violent offenders should never 
get time off for good behavior. Your prison cell ought to be your 
address until the day your sentence ends, period, no time off. Leo 
Gonzales Wright earned nearly 5 years of time off for good behavior 
despite 33 violations in prison for assault, weapons, and drugs--5 
years off for good behavior. He should not have been on the streets.
  I have a bill that is simple. I have never been able to get it 
passed. It says this: If any jurisdiction in this country lets a 
violent offender out of prison early and that person commits a violent 
crime during the time they would have been serving a sentence, then the 
government--the city, county, or State that let him out--is responsible 
to the victim or the victim's family and doesn't have immunity from a 
lawsuit. This bill would force them make a calculation before sending a 
violent offender back to the street as to, what might this cost us in 
terms of what that offender might do to a potential victim? I would 
like to see Congress pass that at some point. I am going to continue to 
try.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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