If you thought the allegations about the Vallejo Police Department's mishandling of the kidnapping of Denise Huskins last March couldn't get any worse, you were incorrect. As ABC 7 reports after reading the complete civil rights complaint filed by Huskins and boyfriend Aaron Quinn against the City of Vallejo and the department, one police officer in particular, regardless of whether he initially believed that the kidnapping was a hoax, said some truly awful and inappropriate things to both Huskins and her mother after they claimed she was sexually assaulted and requested a sexual assault exam.
According to Huskins's attorney James Wagstaffe, Detective Matthew Mustard asserted to Huskins's mother that her daughter's claims of being raped twice while in captivity were false. Huskins's mother told Mustard that her daughter had been sexually abused as a child, and Mustard allegedly responded by saying, "That's what sometimes people do who are victims of sexual assault, that they make it up later and try to re-experience the situation and enjoy the excitement."
Later, when Huskins requested a sexual assault exam, she was told to keep her clothes on and they'd perform it "eventually." Police proceeded to wait 15 hours, allowing Huskins to remain in the clothing in which she was kidnapped and assaulted, before performing the exam. According to Wagstaffe, "We have no information that it was ever even tested at all."
Huskins's criminal attorney, Doug Rappaport, calls Mustard's behavior "misogynistic," and "one of the biggest miscarriages of justice I've ever seen in my entire 25 year career."
Huskins and Quinn announced their intention to sue back in September following an ersatz jailhouse confession from accused kidnapper Matthew Muller. As we learned yesterday, the suit alleges not only defamation by the Vallejo PD, but also false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Though he has not yet stood trial, Muller admitted to KPIX reporter Juliette Goodrich that he had invaded the homes and attempted to assault other women in the past, and that he had acted alone despite writing a manifesto back in March 2015 that alluded to a gang of "gentlemen criminals" like the guys in Oceans 11.
The low ransom sum and bizarrely grandiose details in Muller's manifesto and eventual, anonymous written apology, emailed to the San Francisco Chronicle in the days following the kidnapping helped to spur the Vallejo PD to write off the case as a hoax. In the letter, which is still only allegedly attributed to Muller, the kidnapper says he was "horrified at what [I] had done." This after he found out Huskins "was previously the victim of several horrifying crimes, the details of which we will not share because they were told in confidence during a vulnerable moment while she was drugged... we would rather take the chance of revealing the truth than live in a world where someone like [Huskins] is victimized again."
Muller has admitted to suffering from bipolar disorder with extreme paranoia and psychosis.
Previously: Accused Vallejo Kidnapper Matthew Muller Confessed In Jailhouse Interview, Said He Acted Alone
Suspect In Vallejo Kidnapping Possibly Tied To Three More Home Invasions
Vallejo Kidnapping Of Denise Huskins Not A Hoax After All, Says FBI