By Tony Saavedra
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA, Calif. — The three violent men worked on their escape for months, from late 2015 through early 2016, cutting through half-inch steel bars that let them into the plumbing tunnel of the Orange County Jail.
They even used a smuggled cellphone to record video of their work, an effort to leave no visual clues as they burrowed.
Finally, one year ago today, they emerged — dropping from the jail’s roof and catching a cab to wild, highly publicized, road-tripping freedom.
Officially, their escape lasted eight days, when two of the men were captured two days after the third had turned himself in. But in many, less official ways, the most spectacular jailbreak in county history remains an active event.
For some, the escape brought rewards of sorts.
The sheriff’s lieutenant who spent a week in front of TV cameras, urging the world to look for the three escapees, today has a new, high-powered job in the department.
The homeless man who spotted two of the escapees in San Francisco eventually got a cash reward he couldn’t have imagined. The sheriff’s captain who took over the jail, post-escape, is credited with overseeing significant changes to prevent future breakouts.
For others, the escape brought frustration and more.
The captain in charge of the jail on the day of the escape was transferred, and today is retired. The taxi driver who says he was kidnapped for days by the escapees has seen his version of the story questioned and has filed a lawsuit against the county for his pain and suffering. And the Sheriff’s Department itself remains under fire for not following procedures.
“I’m pretty upset daily inspections of the (plumbing) tunnels weren’t happening,” said county Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who as recently as last week hurled a barrage of jail security questions at a sheriff’s staffer.
Sheriff’s officials point to new procedures (and newly followed procedures) they’re using to try to prevent future escapes. They also have plans for a new tracking system that uses radio technology to monitor the exact location of the 1,100-plus inmates at all times.
Still, the escape has yet to be investigated by any outside agency. And an internal investigation by the Sheriff’s Department has gone cold, with several key questions still unanswered:
Where did the cutting tools come from?
How did the inmates know the escape route behind the walls?
Did the men escape on a night when the number of guards was reduced? And, if they did, how did that happen?
Escapees Hossein Nayeri, Bac Tien Duong and Jonathan Tieu face kidnapping and other charges related to the breakout, in addition to the original charges that ranged from murder and torture to attempted murder.
They’re awaiting their trials in custody -- in separate parts of the jail system.
Captured on camera
The fugitives first were captured on a cellphone camera smuggled in to Nayeri.
His alleged crimes are so vicious -- including ordering that a victim’s penis be severed -- that Nayeri has been compared by prosecutors to the fictitious villan Hannibal Lecter. But one viewer of the cellphone video predicts that if released to the public, the images will go viral and make Nayeri a “star.”
That video also might offer details about how the escape played out.
According to interviews and documents, the videos show the three men sawing for months through half-inch steel bars to get to the plumbing tunnels behind the walls. The phone video was used to meticulously replace the bars so the work would go unnoticed.
It turned out the inmates didn’t have to worry. Deputies at the Central Men’s Jail were not inspecting the tunnels daily as required by policy.
Besides the phone, Nayeri had acquired cutting tools -- lots of them. A year after the escape, sheriff’s investigators still have not found the tools or determined where they came from.
The trio apparently did not record the actual escape on camera, but sheriff’s officials determined they went through a metal grid at dawn and then through some metal bars to get to the plumbing tunnels. They then climbed rungs inside the tunnel to the roof and used a rope made of bedsheets to rappel five stories down the side of the building. An accomplice picked them up at 10th and Olive streets. Loc Ba Nguyen of Costa Mesa was arrested and accused of being that accomplice.
Deputies apparently didn’t do a hard body count that day until 15 hours after the men got out. That count was the first time deputies realized the men were gone.
The 15-hour gap also angered and frustrated Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, who spent much of the next week in the public eye pleading for help to capture the escapees and explaining that her agency would figure out what happened.
Today, inmate counts are more frequent and consistently involve physically accounting for each person. Soon it will include a photo-bearing identification card that can be tracked by radio frequencies.
A year ago, the technology was already in use at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, but it is now being picked up in some parts of the Central Men’s Jail.
Other changes are aimed at preventing future escapes.
The jail now houses cellphone-sniffing dogs to track cellular contraband. The bars in the wall have been strengthened and wrapped in a cover that spins when you try to cut through it, said sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Mark Stichter.
Motion-detecting cameras and extra lights have been installed in the plumbing tunnels. And more lighting has been installed outside the jail, illuminating once-hidden areas, Stichter said.
The department also keeps track of every tool brought into the jail by contractors, making sure that every tool is taken out by those contractors.
In all, Stichter said, the department has spent nearly $570,000 to “harden” the jail.
But the agency still needs money to enclose the rooftop recreational area and increase security cameras there.
After the escape, the sheriff’s union complained that deputies had been warning for months that more so-called hard body counts were needed but were told by their supervisors to stand down.
The union also has claimed the escape happened after guards were reduced on the roof area.
A year ago, sheriff’s Capt. Chris Wilson, who was at the helm of the jail the day of the escape, was said to be on vacation. After the escape, he was reassigned to the coroner’s office. He retired from the department Jan. 11.
Bill Baker, then a lieutenant, was promoted to captain and assigned to the beleaguered jail. Within months -- and with the jail regaining its footing -- sheriff’s leadership promoted Baker to commander in charge of investigations, a coveted assignment.
Capt. Cindi Coppock is now in charge of the jail -- a post that union officials describe as a “revolving door.”
On the run
Nayeri used the phone camera to record the trio’s travels.
They called a freelance cab driver, Long Ma, and had him drive them around Southern California. After several hours, Duong stuck a gun in Ma’s ribs and told him he was no longer driving a cab but a getaway car. The group eventually ended up in a San Jose motel, where it drank beer and Jack Daniel’s.
According to Ma, the escapees later also argued, in English, about killing Ma, who speaks only Vietnamese. Duong, who had taken a liking to the taxi driver, fought for Ma’s life.
Ma, through an interpreter, later said he was marched to the end of the Santa Cruz Wharf during the ordeal, rope in hand, and forced to pose for cellphone photos. Ma believed they were going to throw him off the pier; they didn’t.
Ma and Duong eventually escaped in his taxi and drove down to Santa Ana, where Duong turned himself in.
The next day, Matthew Hay-Chapman, a homeless San Francisco man with a fondness for newscasts, spotted a white van in San Francisco that looked like the one television reporters said was being used by the fugitives.
The van was parked alongside a Whole Foods market across from Golden Gate Park. Hay-Chapman flagged down a nearby patrol officer. After a brief foot chase, Nayeri was in custody and police soon found Tieu hiding in the van.
After eight long days, the escapees were back in custody.
The aftermath
The escape generated reward money.
Hay-Chapman was awarded $100,000 for calling the cops. He did not respond to email requests to learn what he has done with the money.
An additional $50,000 in rewards went to others who had alerted the police during the ordeal.
But Ma, the cabbie, wasn’t among them.
Ma’s attorney argued he deserved part of the cash, but county supervisors said the law didn’t allow it.
So Ma sued the county, claiming that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. His lawsuit against the county is pending.
Others fared better after the escape.
During the eight-day manhunt, Capt. Jeff Hallock and Hutchens served as the faces of the department. They appeared at news conferences, keeping the fugitives in the public eye, turning the story from one about blame and incompetence to one about community involvement.
Hallock later was declared PR News’ 2016 spokesperson of the year.
But the jailbreak ordeal didn’t end without some collateral damage.
Nooshafarin Ravaghi, a Saddleback College English teacher who worked part time at the jail, was arrested on charges that she’d given Google maps of the jail’s rooftop to Nayeri. The teacher was held for a few days until prosecutors announced they would not press charges. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas even said it was unfortunate that she had been cast as an accomplice.
But the extremely private woman was for days the subject of extreme media coverage, mostly stories examining her possible relationship with Nayeri.
As for the cellphone camera? It’s expected to become evidence against the escapees.
The three men are scheduled for a preliminary hearing Feb. 10.
___
(c)2017 The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.)