Orange County officials Wednesday were mum on a video — made by one of three inmates who staged a brazen jail breakout last year — that was leaked by his attorney to news organizations.
The video is narrated by Adam Hossein Nayeri, who attempts in some ways to justify the Jan. 22, 2016, breakout, deride his captors and criticize Orange County law enforcement.
It begins with a montage of news clips about the escape and the eight- day manhunt.
“A lot of people would like to credit us with some Houdini escape act all in eight minutes flat,” Nayeri says. “It’s an interesting myth, three guys sneaking out of a maximum security module right after a 5 a.m. count without anyone noticing.”
He said the initial account from authorities was like “the stuff you read about in comic books. In reality, it is true we do leave after one of the counts, but not the one they’re saying.”
Nayeri said they got an “eight-hour” lead.
“As far as set-up goes, we had a duffle bag and a backpack full of stuff,” Nayeri said. He said the escape kit included “high-grade industrial ropes” — not bed sheets as was initially reported — along with “shoes, clothes and much more.”
“This was no secret,” he said. “They knew this within hours… I don’t know why they decided to stay with the string story and 5 a.m. (escape).”
Nayeri, 38, and the other two escapees, Bac Tien Duong, 44, and Jonathan Tieu, 21, got help from Duong’s former boss, who pleaded guilty last month to aiding the breakout.
Loc Ba Nguyen, 51, gathered together supplies and left them near the jail for the inmates to retrieve from the roof.
Nayeri used a contraband phone to videotape the inside of the jail before the breakout. In one shot, Duong mugs for the camera, and later they are shown breaking out of the jail through grates and metal bars that were cut. Officials do not know what sort of tool they used to cut through the bars or how they got it.
Nayeri gives a thumbs-up as he slips through the grate in the video.
He praised the cab driver they allegedly kidnapped and forced to drive them in their escape.
“This man is truly a hero,” Nayeri says of Long Ma. “A really compassionate person, who wanted no harm to anyone.”
He said ultimately “things fall apart — you never know what a really intense situation can do to a man. His presence kept a loose cannon from acting out. He just radiated this calm, fatherly presence.”
Ma is suing the county over the denial of reward money, and Nayeri said he was sorry that Ma could not collect some of it.
“I wish I could help him (Ma) more. I just didn’t have 180 grand at the moment,” Nayeri says on the tape.
Supervisor Andrew Do cited the litigation as the reason he could not comment.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office also declined to comment “due to the fact this is ongoing litigation,” said spokeswoman Michelle Van Der Linden.
The video shows the cab driver posing for pictures with the inmates, smiling on a beach in Santa Cruz, and a photo of Tieu on the beach watching the waves.
“This kid shouldn’t have been jailed,” Nayeri says of his fellow escapee. “How in the world can you put him in prison for life for a tragedy he didn’t even physically do himself? What does a 14-year-old know about anyway? He grew up in jail and he’s 21 now.”
Tieu is charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with a gang-related attack. His case has been reassigned to juvenile court this year due to a change in the law.
Nayeri claimed Tieu was put in isolation for a year and a half.
“Eighteen months they kept him in the hole, yes, the hole, the ghostly silent concrete shoe box designed for a maximum of a couple of weeks of punishment only,” Nayeri says on the video. “Can you imagine this is happening in your first world country, America? They don’t even do this in Guatanamo Bay.”
Nayeri said Tieu is “silly as hell and down to earth.”
Of Duong, who eventually turned himself in, Nayeri wasn’t as complimentary, calling him “the first man in history to collect reward money on himself.”
Nayeri also took shots at sheriff’s Capt. Jeff Hallock, who was the department’s spokesman during the manhunt, for `taunting and giving out ultimatums during media briefings on the escape.
The video also shows Nayeri and Tieu, after they had parted ways with Duong, with a bong in the white van Duong is accused of stealing.
“This is our casa right now for the moment, this is our crib,” Nayeri says of the van. “No, we don’t have crack or crystal methamphetamine. We’re smoking weed, eating bananas,” adding, “It’s Friday night in San Francisco, a special Friday night in San Francisco.”
He expressed some remorse, saying, “We cost the taxpayers a lot of money… We scared the hell out of people and caused a lot of anxiety and fear. At the end of the day, I can’t say I feel good about it.”
Nayeri, however, indicated the jailbreak was a rebuke of authority.
“I got totally crushed by the reality distortion machine a couple of years before the escape,” he said of charges he faces for allegedly kidnapping a marijuana dispensary owner, whose penis was severed by his captors.
“That’s exactly why I completely lost faith in the system,” Nayeri said. “I was hurt and I ended up hurting you… Really, who polices the police. Please think for yourself. Question authority, question authority.”
–City News Service