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Meet The Iranian Woman Who Helped Three Violent Criminals Escape Orange County Jail

By Shelley Hazen
Published on: 03:07 PST, Jan 29, 2016

Echoing last year’s New York prison break, in which a female employee helped two convicted killers break out of an upstate prison, a female English teacher at an Orange County jail in California now stands accused of helping three more violent inmates escape.

Iranian-born Nooshafarin Ravaghi, 44, a contracted English teacher who allegedly grew pretty close to inmate Hossein Nayeri, 37, was arrested Tuesday, NBC News reported. Charges have not yet been filed.

Police believe that Ravaghi helped the inmates escape by providing them with Google maps and other materials, but so far, she denies giving them tools. According to CNN, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said the criminals also had outside help.

Ravaghi began teaching at the Men’s Central Jail in Orange County six months ago after passing a background check, the Los Angeles Times reported. Nayeri attended several of her English as a second language classes and they developed a friendly relationship that went beyond student and teacher, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Jeffrey Hallock.

The nature of their friendship is being investigated. Authorities don’t know whether Ravaghi was aware Nayeri and the two other inmates planned to escape Orange County Jail; Nayeri was reportedly the ringleader.

Regardless, police believe the woman “directly contributed to the escape and provided credible planning tools.” She denies bringing anything more than maps — which they could’ve used to study the jail’s roof and the surrounding area — but investigators will not rule out the possibility that she provided something that allowed the men to cut through the jail’s plumbing.

However, officials have said that some of the cuts were too clean and the material cut too thick for prison-made tools; they still don’t know what kind were used.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, the men cut through a quarter-inch-thick grill behind several bunk beds on a dorm wall, then wiggled through plumbing tunnels. They then cut through half-inch-thick steel bars to gain access to an unguarded part of the roof, moved aside the razor wire, and rappelled down five floors with bed sheets and prison clothes.

They have been at large ever since. In addition to Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu, 20, and Bac Duong, 43, also escaped. On Sunday, a man matching Duong’s description stole a van in southern LA and it’s possible all three men are living in it.

Ten more people have been arrested in connection with the probe into the Orange County Jail escape. Some of them were picked up for probation violations, while others were members of the same gang as Teiu.

So who is Nooshafarin Ravaghi? She was born in Iran and raised in Tehran, then traveled around the world with her father. She studied French literature in Tehran and Paris before moving to California in 1997, has a graduate degree from Cal State, taught English, Farsi, and French in Orange County, and worked as a book editor. She also authored a series of “multicultural books” for kids.

An anonymous former colleague said she didn’t have any kind of relationship with her students outside the classroom.

“She was very kind to the students, a good tutor, but she didn’t really socialize with the students. She treated them like a teacher does. She seemed to be very ethical.”

He called her “kind of a loner.”

The men she helped are all considered very dangerous; they’re awaiting trial for separate and equally horrific crimes. Nayeri is facing kidnapping and torture. In 2012, he and three others allegedly kidnapped the owner of a pot dispensary, burned him with a blowtorch, and then cut off his penis. Tieu is facing charges of murder and attempted murder. He allegedly perpetrated a gang-related killing in 2011. Duong is charged with attempted murder, accused of shooting a 52-year-old man in the chest; he survived and identified Duong as his shooter.

Just last year, in a strikingly similar story to the Orange County Jail escape, Richard Matt and David Sweat busted out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. Employee Joyce Mitchell has been accused of helping them escape.

[Photo By Kevin Warn/AP]

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