Man held hostage by 3 jail escapees sues for share of $200K in reward money
A taxi driver who was reportedly held hostage for a week by three men escaped from a California jail has sued for a share of $200,000 in reward money.
Long Hoang Ma, 71, is also seeking additional damages for the manner in which the reward money was allocated, alleging racial discrimination, as well as the claimed gross negligence that permitted the trio to escape, reports Courthouse News.
The men escaped in January by rappelling off the roof, and were not missed for 12 to 15 hours. They called Ma’s taxi service for a ride, then took him hostage. Already traumatized by his experiences as a military officer in the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese immigrant suffered further damage from the stress of spending a week with suspects in violent felony cases who Ma expected to kill him, Ma’s lawyer, Walter Emil Teague III of the Tu Firm tells the news agency.
Finally, Ma persuaded one of the trio, Bac Duong, 43, to flee the hotel, apparently in his taxi, while the other two suspects were having the windows of a stolen van tinted. Over the course of a 400-mile drive, Ma says, he persuaded Duong to surrender.
When Duong was back in custody, Ma called the Orange County sheriff’s office with a description of the stolen van and explained where he had last seen the other two suspects, Ma says. When the information was broadcast to the public, a homeless man in San Francisco spotted the wanted pair, Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Jonathan Tieu, 20, and alerted a police officer.
The homeless man got $10,000; the owner of the stolen van got $20,000 for making a vehicle theft report; and two Target employees got $15,000 for recognizing that the pair had purchased cellphones at their store and giving police the receipts, the Courthouse News article recounts.
However, Ma got nothing, in what he claims in his suit was a violation of due process and an act of discrimination. The complaint was filed last week in Orange County.
Although California law protects the state from being sued for injuries due to jail escapes, Teague said he believes the statutory immunity could be overcome by the facts of the case. “In cases of gross negligence, when something is really stupid, there is a chance,” he told Courthouse News.
Among other issues, he said the three escapees were misclassified as nonviolent offenders and were permitted access to tools, which they stole and used to cut through walls to get to the roof of the jail. Meanwhile, staffing was dangerously low, despite a report documenting the issue, Teague said. Instead of increasing staff in response to the report, the jail reduced staff in a cost-cutting move, eliminating a deputy who formerly was assigned to the roof of the jail.
County officials did not respond to requests for comment by the news agency.
Related coverage:
Los Angeles Times (sub. req.): “Cab driver held captive by O.C. jail escapees: ‘Dead or alive—it’s up to God’ “
