Full Coverage: Three inmates escape from Orange County jail

The cab driver who was kidnapped by three Orange County jail escapees said Friday that he planned to sue the county for discrimination.

A homeless man from San Francisco was handed a $100,000 check Thursday as reward for helping lead authorities to the capture of two Orange County jail escapees.

Four people will split a $150,000 reward for providing information that led to the capture of three escaped Orange County jail inmates in January, officials said Tuesday.

Weeks after three inmates escaped from an Orange County jail, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said that the ongoing investigation into the caper has not answered two big questions: What cutting tools the men used to saw their way out of the maximum security jail, and how they got ahold of them while behind bars.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has asked to meet behind closed doors with county supervisors next week to discuss the department’s investigation into the escape of three prisoners accused of violent crimes from a maximum-security jail last month.

The suspected mastermind of a three-man escape from a Southern California jail says he never intended to harm anyone during his eight days on the run.

Staff cuts at an Orange County jail removed obstacles that would have otherwise prevented three dangerous inmates from breaking out last month, according to a lawsuit filed by sheriff’s deputies.

Cortney Shegerian was a law student when, police say, she helped her husband conduct surveillance on a man who was later abducted and mutilated.

The cab driver picked up the three men outside a restaurant in Garden Grove about 9:30 p.m., around the time that panicked Orange County Sheriff’s officials realized they had a jailbreak on their hands.

Just as Orange County sheriff’s deputies discovered several inmates had vanished from a Santa Ana jail, three men got into a taxi cab not far from the lockup.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens called the escape of three men from the Central Men’s Jail an “embarrassment� and acknowledged that the maximum-security lockup appears not to have followed proper policies to keep track of inmates.

The fugitives had already taken a hostage by the time deputies inside an Orange County jail were staring at severed air ducts and a rope of knotted bedsheets, wondering how three men had escaped from the maximum-security lockup.

Bac Duong, one of three inmates who escaped from a jail in Santa Ana, was scared and just wanted to turn himself in peacefully, two callers told a police dispatcher Friday.

Years before his other well-known instances of taking flight – from criminal cases in Madera County, Orange County and, finally, from the Orange County jail itself -- Hossein Nayeri fled his post as a U.S.

Three inmates and a jail teacher who allegedly helped them escape are expected to appear in court Monday, more than a week after they broke free from a Santa Ana lockup.

Two of the three inmates who escaped from an Orange County jail were booked early Sunday morning into the Santa Ana detention facility from which they had fled, marking the end of an eight-day manhunt by federal and local law enforcement officials.

When three men escaped from the Orange County jail, officials quickly decided only one of the escapees possessed the cunning and resourcefulness to mastermind it: Hossein Nayeri, a 37-year-old ex-Marine who faced charges in a grisly kidnapping and torture plot.

During their week on the run, Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong followed a well-respected formula for fugitives: Always keep one step ahead of the authorities.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said Saturday that her department has begun an extensive review of security measures in the wake of the jail escape that had three fugitives accused of violent crimes on the run for much of the week.

The two Orange County jail escapees who remained at large after a daring escape eight days ago were arrested in San Francisco after a citizen noticed a van matching the description of the one they had allegedly stolen parked in a lot near a Whole Foods Market, officials said Saturday.

Before they were caught this week, three Orange County jail escapees managed to drive to Northern California in a stolen white van and check into a motel in San Jose, authorities and witnesses say.

Hossein Nayeri graduated from high school near Fresno and served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

For days, Tri and Theresa Nguyen had seen their friend’s face splashed on television and wanted posters after he and two other inmates had escaped from an Orange County jail.

Two fugitives who escaped from an Orange County jail last week are now believed to be in the San Jose area and may be headed to Fresno, authorities said Friday.

Their friendship blossomed under unusual circumstances, officials say.

The search continues for three fugitive inmates who, with the help of a jail English teacher, escaped a Santa Ana detention facility last week, sheriff’s officials said.

The story of an Orange County jail escape took a dramatic turn Thursday with the arrest of a jail ESL teacher on suspicion of helping with the plot.

A 44-year-old woman who worked as an English teacher at a Santa Ana jail was arrested Thursday on suspicion of helping three inmates mount a daring escape last week, officials said.

Several alleged gang members were arrested Wednesday as part of the investigation into the jailbreak at Orange County’s largest lockup as Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said she believed that the three men who escaped had help from the outside.

Officials said they expected to make more arrests as the search for three prisoners who escaped from an Orange County jail last week widened.

Bac Duong, one of three Orange County jail prisoners who escaped last week, was ordered deported 16 years ago but continued to live in the country, federal officials said.

Orange County Sheriff’s officials said Tuesday that they were “extremely troubled� that it took at least 16 hours for deputies to realize three inmates had escaped last week, as new details emerged about the lengths the trio went to break out of the high-security lockup in Santa Ana.

Court documents formally charging three inmates with escaping from Orange County Jail reveal new details of how authorities believe they got out and about law enforcement’s reaction in the first hours after the jailbreak was discovered.

The escape from Orange County’s largest jail probably took only a few minutes.

Hossein Nayeri had run before. When confronted by the law, it seemed to be his reflex.

Residents in Orange County’s Little Saigon awoke Monday to a troubling warning from authorities.

Orange County prosecutors on Monday charged three men with escaping from jail as the massive dragnet aimed at capturing them continued for a third day.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies are searching for three inmates charged with violent crimes who escaped from a Santa Ana jail, authorities said Saturday.