A California fugitive who broke out of prison more than 30 years ago was found quietly living with an ex-lover in the same area where he was first arrested.
Ronald Keith Harvey, 79, escaped from Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin, where he was serving time for running a massive illegal marijuana operation, in 1994.
‘He wasn’t cultivating a small amount. He was arrested with 600 plus plants and firearms. So, it was a pretty big operation that he was running,’ Deputy U.S. Marshal Cruz Moya, who has been handling Harvey’s case, told ABC 7.
There had been no trace of Harvey for decades – until the cops got a lead this year by conducting a data sweep and finding an address associated with the man on the run.
This led officers about 150 miles away from the prison, located in Dublin, to a home in Nevada City, where the prison escapee was renting a room from a woman he dated casually 35 years ago.
After years of freedom, living a peaceful life in the charming city just 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, Harvey was cuffed and detained once again on June 12, according to arrest records.
But the police and his lover-turned-landlord, DeVee Brown, are stunned that Harvey was able to pull off this long-term prison break.
‘It does happen. There are some people who are better than others at absconding justice and just going on the run,’ Moya told ABC 7.
Ronald Keith Harvey, 79, escaped from the scandal-entrenched Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin, where he was serving time for running a massive illegal marijuana operation, in 1994
The notorious FCI Dublin was converted into a low-security all-female prison in 2012
Brown revealed she was oblivious to the fact that Harvey was a wanted man – she even checked with the Nevada County sheriff once a month to make sure there were no warrants out for him.
And even though Harvey was evading the law, he never acted like it, Brown explained.
‘I was very shocked, of course. He had his own room. He paid rent every month to me,’ she said to ABC 7.
Harvey remains at the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility in Nevada City. He still has four more years of his original sentence to serve, but he may have more time tacked on for fleeing.
The notorious FCI Dublin was converted into a low-security all-female prison in 2012.
But the prison shuttered in April 2024 as inmates accused guards of rampant sexual abuse.
Former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss – who served three years of her tax evasion and money laundering charges at FCI Dublin from 1997 to 2000 – previously told DailyMail.com it was common knowledge guards had sexual relationships with prisoners.
Fleiss said she was shocked the prison is closing, but was not surprised the guard-on-inmate sexual abuses continued years after she did her time at Dublin because ‘everyone knew it was happening all the time.’
Even though Harvey was evading the law, he never seemed to be dodging justice, Brown explained
At least eight former employees have been charged with sexual abuse since 2021.
Victims filed a class action lawsuit against the facility, which ended in a $115.8 million settlement allocated to the over 100 inmates who endured the abuse.
Stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin each served brief stints at FCI Dublin for their involvement in a college admission scheme.
The actresses came under fire when the FBI uncovered they were two of 50 parents involved in a cheating scandal to get their children into top colleges including Georgetown, Stanford, UCLA and Yale.
It involved parents paying bribes of up to $6 million to get their children into elite schools.
In many instances, the children were unaware that their parents had paid these tax-deductible bribes, according to federal documents.
Most of those charged either paid to get higher SAT scores or faked an athletic resume that, with the participation of a bribed college coach, helped the children get accepted to a college as a team recruit.
Huffman was ultimately sentenced two weeks at FCI Dublin in 2019 for paying $15,000 to have her daughter’s SAT scores falsified.
Stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin each served brief stints at the prison for their involvement in a college admission scheme for 11 days in 2019 and two months in 2020, respectively
After was also fined $30,000 and ordered to complete 250 hours of community service upon her release. She was on probation for a year.
Laughlin served two months at the facility in 2020 after she and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty to paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as crew recruits, even though neither girl was a rower.
The Full House star was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, pay a $150,000 fine and have two years of supervised release.
Her husband served five months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, 100 hours of community service and a $150,000 fine.
