California couple gets $2.5 million settlement after city called kidnapping a hoax

Police cast doubt on couple's story, but a kidnapper was found and convicted

A lawsuit accuses the Vallejo Police Department of mishandling the case ( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A California city has settled for $2.5 million (£1.8 million) with a couple who sued after officials called their account of a kidnapping a hoax.

Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn filed a defamation lawsuit against the city of Vallejo after officials there dismissed Mr Quinn’s description of a home intruder kidnapping and raping Ms Huskins as a fabrication that had wasted police resources.

Vindicating the couple, a man named Matthew Muller was later convicted of kidnapping Ms Quinn and sentenced to 40 years in prison after he was arrested and had his home searched during an unrelated investigation. Prosecutors said they found video of Muller sexually assaulting Ms Huskins while she was blindfolded.

Their lawsuit accused Vallejo police officers of “a vicious and shocking attack” that “unfairly destroyed their reputations through an outrageous and wholly unfounded campaign of disparagement”.

It alleges police officers reacted to Mr Quinn reporting the crime by treating him as if he had “already been convicted of murdering” Ms Huskins.

The case attracted ample media coverage and was referred to by some outlets “Gone Girl” case, referencing a film in which a character fakes her own kidnapping.

The lawsuit accuses the Vallejo Police Department of stoking that “salacious and absurd” narrative, “turning a local disappearance into a worldwide media frenzy proliferating” the department’s “public smearing”.

A district court judge last year denied Vallejo’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

A representative of Vallejo did not respond to the Independent’s request for comment.