American Nightmare: The Denise Huskins Case

Send us Fan MailThe provided sources offer an overview of the 2015 kidnapping and sexual assault of Denise Huskins by Matthew Muller, focusing heavily on the Vallejo Police Department's (VPD) egregious mishandling of the case, which involved publicly labeling it a hoax akin to the movie Gone Girl. Multiple articles detail how police, particularly Detective Mat Mustard and Lt. Kenny Park, swiftly discounted the accounts of Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, and instead subjected Quinn to an intense, non-believing interrogation, demonstrating a major failure of basic police work. The VPD's mistakes became apparent when the perpetrator, Matthew Muller (a disbarred Harvard-educated attorney), was linked to a separate home invasion, leading to his arrest and subsequent federal conviction and 40-year sentence. Documents from Muller’s federal case confirm his guilty plea to kidnapping, including the key role of emails he sent to a reporter to prove the crime was real, while also revealing that he is challenging his conviction. Furthermore, the sources highlight the significant financial and reputational cost to the city, including a $2.5 million settlement paid to Huskins and Quinn, against the backdrop of the VPD’s broader history of excessive force lawsuits and high civil rights payouts.Support the show