Denise Huskins, the Vallejo woman whose 2015 kidnapping and sexual assault case was featured in Netflix’s American Nightmare, is pushing for changes to state law after learning her assailant was given access to explicit evidence from her case during his trial.

As CBS Sacramento’s Julie Watts reports, Denise Huskins and her husband, Aaron Quinn, are preparing to testify in support of a victims’ privacy bill aimed at closing gaps in California law that allow defendants in crimes involving adult victims to obtain and retain sensitive case materials. Years after her attacker’s conviction, Huskins discovered that his then-wife still had copies of that evidence in her home.

The case stems from an infamous March 2015 home invasion in Vallejo where Matthew Muller blindfolded and drugged the couple before kidnapping Huskins, sexually assaulting her, and holding her for ransom in South Lake Tahoe for two days before releasing her near her father's home in Southern California.

At the time, law enforcement publicly accused Huskins of staging the kidnapping, a claim later disproven after Muller was arrested in a separate case and pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting her. The case became more nationally well known following the 2024 Netflix docu-series American Nightmare.

Over the past year, Huskins and Quinn have been working with investigators to help reopen cold cases tied to Matthew Muller, as SFist reported last year, efforts that led to new confessions and revelations about how evidence in her case was handled.

As CBS reports, the couple learned that explicit recordings of the assaults — which investigators say Muller filmed — had been turned over to defense attorneys as part of the legal discovery process and not properly safeguarded.

According to investigators, Muller’s then-wife, who said she acted as his legal assistant while he represented himself for a time, retained copies of that material in her home for years after his conviction.

The handling of explicit evidence in her case is now driving reform efforts in Sacramento, as Huskins and Quinn prepare to testify in support of a new victims’ privacy bill, SB 1056 authored by Senator Tim Grayson, as CalMatters reports.

"Part of videoing it is his ability to continue to exploit and re-victimize me over and over again every time he viewed it," Huskins tells CBS. “To learn that there wasn't more care, more guidelines and restrictions, was just another insult to injury."

CBS reports that while California law requires courts to seal sexually explicit evidence involving minors, protections for adult victims are far less defined. There is reportedly no consistent system to track or verify compliance once a case concludes — even when protective orders are issued.

As a result, individual prosecutors or courts are responsible for processing and tracking explicit evidence involving adult victims, without uniform statewide standards.

"There isn't a law," Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Sonja Satchell told CBS. "We are governed by best practices… and those practices can vary from county to county. There is no uniformity."

Huskins and Quinn are now working with lawmakers to establish clearer statewide standards through the creation of SB 1056, as CBS reports. The bill would require courts to issue protective orders for sexually explicit evidence involving victims of any age and limit how that material is copied, shared, or accessed.

"If survivors don't feel like they're going to be safe and protected, they are not going to come forward," Huskins tells the station.

As CBS reports, the couple is scheduled to testify before the California State Senate Public Safety Committee in support of the bill on March 24.

"It's healing to know that we have a voice… and we can use it," she said.

Previously: Kidnapping and Assault Victim Denise Huskins Helped Law Enforcement Find More Victims of Matthew Muller

Image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 15: (L-R) Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn attend the 2024 Critics Choice Real TV Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on June 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)