VALLEJO — A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed against the city of Vallejo by Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, the couple at the center of a bizarre kidnapping in 2015 that police initially dismissed as a hoax, according to reports.
KGO-TV, this newspaper’s media partner, reported the case was settled for $2.5 million.
Reached for comment, city spokeswoman Joanna Altman said the city had not yet signed a settlement.
Huskins and Quinn sued the city, Detective Matthew Mustard and Lt. Kenny Park in 2016, alleging the couple suffered emotional and physical distress, humiliation and hardship because of the Vallejo Police Department investigation.
The complaint specifically alleged the police department, Park and Mustard defamed the couple in public and caused an intentional infliction of emotional distress to Huskins.
On March 23, 2015, Huskins and Quinn were awakened and drugged by an intruder in their Mare Island home. Huskins was then kidnapped, sexually assaulted and imprisoned for two days before being released near her father’s home in Southern California.
Vallejo police quickly declared the case a hoax. Some in the media began calling Huskins the “Gone Girl,” a reference to the book and movie about a woman who fakes her own abduction.
For months, Huskins and Quinn were widely considered criminals. But the case took a strange turn several months later, when police arrested Matthew Muller, 39, a Harvard-educated attorney. He pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and is now serving a 40-year prison sentence.
