Couple Accused of Kidnapping Hoax Wins $2.5 Million Settlement
A Vallejo couple has reached a $2.5 million settlement with the Vallejo Police Department and the city after officials discounted the couple’s story of a late-night home invasion turned kidnapping.
In March of 2015, Denise Huskins and her then-boyfriend Aaron Quinn alleged that at least two individuals in wetsuits broke into their home at night, drugged them, and kidnapped Huskins.
The home invasion was intended to target Quinn's former girlfriend who bore a similar resemblance to Huskins, but according to the couple, the suspects made a mistake, leading them to kidnap Huskins instead. The couple alleges they overheard the perpetrators discussing what they should do with Huskins after they realized she was not who she was supposed to be.
When the assailant who was later identified as Matthew Muller broke into their home, he had the couple wear blacked-out swimming goggles and had their hands tied up. The couple was also instructed to put on headphones and listen to a recording made by the assailants, detailing instructions of what they were supposed to do during the home invasion. According to the couple, when the suspects realized that Huskins was not their target, they ended up kidnapping her and leaving Quinn behind to follow detailed instructions. The instructions included contacting Muller every so often on a cell phone while a video camera Muller set up in the home recorded his every move.
After the kidnappers took Huskins and left Quinn behind, Quinn contacted authorities and was interrogated at the police station by detectives. During the interrogation, Detective Matt Mustard accused Quinn of staging the elaborate scheme and insisting that he had something to do with Huskin’s disappearance. In a videotaped interrogation between Quinn and the detective, Quinn can be seen wearing a black and white jailhouse uniform while he's being interrogated. Mustard can be heard saying, "The frogmen obviously didn't do it, so who did it now, well it's the guy that I've been sitting here talking to tonight. So now I get out my puzzle pieces and I start figuring it out, okay, how do I make it, so you look like a monster."
An FBI agent later comes in to share with Quinn the results of a polygraph exam Quinn had taken. The FBI agent explains to Quinn that he failed and can be heard saying, "You know where she is."
Two days after Huskin’s kidnapping, her kidnappers released her in a street near her parent’s home in Huntington Beach, 400 miles away from where she was abducted. After she was recovered by authorities, the police department moved away from the accusation that Quinn had murdered Huskins to the new accusation that the couple had staged a kidnapping hoax together. In a statement to the reporters, Vallejo Police Department public information officer Kenny Park chastised the couple saying, "The fact that we've essentially wasted all of these resources for really nothing is upsetting." He adds, "It is Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins that owes this community an apology."
Just three months after the bizarre break-in and kidnapping, Muller attacked another victim only to have the victim fight him off. During the foiled home invasion, Muller left his cell phone behind which allowed former Dublin police detective Misty Carausu to piece together the home invasion she was working on with the Vallejo home invasion. After authorities were alerted to Muller’s home, they were able to recover Quinn’s laptop which led them to the realization that the couple's story was in fact not a hoax.
Under the leadership of a new police chief, the couple received an apology from the police department more than six years after the crime had occurred. In a statement emailed to ABC 7 News, both the city and the Vallejo Police Department extended their apologies. The statement read in part, "The Huskins Quinn case was not publicly handled with the type of sensitivity a case of this nature should have been handled with, and for that, the City extends an apology to Ms. Huskins and Mr. Quinn.” The police chief adds, “What happened to Ms. Huskins and Mr. Quinn is horrific and evil. As the new Chief of Police, I am committed to making sure survivors are given compassionate service with dignity and respect. Although I was not chief in 2015 when this incident occurred, I would like to extend my deepest apology to Ms. Huskins and Mr. Quinn for how they were treated during this ordeal."
"For so many years we had to stand by silently as the whole world had misinformed conversations and judgments about the worst moment of our life and who we are as people," Huskins shared with ABC7 News.
The couple goes on to hint in a 20/20 interview with Amy Robach that the apology is disingenuous because it came only after the couple’s release of their new book, Victim F, made national headlines.
The couple has shared that there remains strain between the police department and the couple especially since only one perpetrator was arrested for the home invasion when the couple is adamant that there were at least two.
After filing their defamation suit, the couple reached a 2.5 million dollar settlement late last week, days ahead of the couple’s release of their book which details their harrowing experience.
