Mother Accused of Death Plot Against Daughter

An Orange County private school owner, in federal custody for allegedly hiring mercenaries to firebomb the cars of former teachers, was accused Thursday of plotting the possible murder or kidnaping of her own daughter to keep her from testifying at a future trial.

Charlotte Ruth Wyckoff, 51, of Dana Point was charged by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles with attempting to make initial arrangements to prevent the testimony of her daughter, Shirley Wright, 28.

The plot was reportedly hatched while she was in custody at the Sybil Brand Institute, the Los Angeles County women’s jail.

Wyckoff was charged in the latest case with conspiracy, witness tampering and obstruction of justice, as was Elizabeth Leta Hamilton, 39, also of Dana Point. Both are owners of the Pacific Coast Preparatory Schools, a chain of five preschool and elementary schools.

The two women, being held without bail on the firebombing charges, were accused of approaching another inmate at Sybil Brand and soliciting the services of her boyfriend to prevent Wright from testifying at their upcoming trial.

Assistant U.S. Attys. Charles J. Stevens and David W. Wiechert, who are prosecuting the firebombing case, said the jailed school owners discussed “various methods of precluding Wright’s testimony, including kidnaping or killing her.”

The two women approached Sybil Brand inmate Joann Russo in early June with a proposal that she persuade her boyfriend, Larry Corliss, to either intimidate or use physical force against Wright, the prosecutors said.

One plan discussed in addition to the possible kidnaping or murder of Wyckoff’s daughter, according to the grand jury indictment, was “placing drugs in Shirley Wright’s drink at a bar Wright frequented.”

The prosecutors said Russo’s boyfriend was not involved in the discussions and is not accused of any wrongdoing. However, a special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, William L. Queen, pretended to be Corliss during a telephone conversation with Wyckoff on June 23.

The indictment said that during the phone conversation, Wyckoff asked the undercover agent to “ensure that Shirley Wright did not make it to court.”

Wyckoff and Hamilton were arrested May 20 at their Dana Point home on charges of allegedly hiring Franklin Camper, operator of an Alabama mercenary training school, and three of his associates to assault and intimidate former teachers at their schools, formerly called The California Learning Centers.

The six defendants were charged with 10 counts of racketeering, use of explosives and arson in the firebombings of cars belonging to Robyn and Michael Rishoff of Etiwanda and Harriet and Richard Russo of Ontario in August, 1985.

Both of the Rishoffs had worked as teachers at one of the private schools and had lodged formal complaints against their former bosses after they were fired by Wyckoff. Russo (not related to the Sybil Brand inmate) also had been fired and subsequently accused Wyckoff and Hamilton of slandering her, threatening an injunction against the school owners.

Wright, who testified on behalf of the government in bail hearings against her mother and Hamilton, said her mother had guards posted in a tree outside her home in Dana Point last August about the time of the bombings.

She also said Wyckoff and Hamilton told her that they were carrying concealed firearms in their purses and ammunition in their brassieres during the same time period.

Wright testified at the bail hearings that she might flee if her mother and Hamilton were released on bail, and prosecutors later cited her testimony as a factor in U.S. Magistrate Volney V. Brown’s decision to order them held without bail.

In a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, one of the accused mercenaries, James Larosa Cuneo, pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the government. The other defendants, including Wyckoff and Hamilton, have pleaded not guilty.