Couple whose kidnapping claims were initially publicly called a hoax by police file defamation suit
A graduate of Harvard Law School was eventually charged in the kidnapping of Denise Huskins from her boyfriend’s Vallejo, California, home last year.
But before Matthew Muller was identified as a suspect by way of a dropped cellphone found after a similar alleged kidnapping attempt occurred in another home, police publicly dismissed as a hoax claims made by Huskins and her boyfriend that she had been kidnapped for ransom after they were awakened in the middle of the night by a blinding light shined in their faces.
Now Huskins and Aaron Quinn are suing Vallejo for defamation and other alleged torts. The city’s “outrageous and wholly unfounded campaign of disparagement” was humiliating and caused them physical and emotional distress and lost wages and forced them to move, they say in the federal lawsuit they filed Tuesday in Sacramento, according to the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle.
The city has apologized but rejected a previous claim for damages. Vallejo’s city attorney declined to comment on the lawsuit, the Chronicle says.
The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times (sub. req.) also have stories.
Muller, a disbarred immigration attorney, is scheduled to go to trial early next year.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Feds accuse Harvard law grad in kidnapping that police initially considered a hoax”
Sacramento Bee: “Vallejo kidnap suspect back in court in Sacramento”
