Vallejo kidnapping victim Denise Huskins was cooperative and truthful when she reported to Huntington Beach police that she had been abducted, according to a newly released report on the March 2015 case.
Huntington Beach police were the first officers to come in contact with Huskins when she was released by her alleged kidnapper Matthew Muller. Their reports detail what Huskins told them: that she was restrained and blindfolded with swim goggles in Vallejo then kidnapped for days. It's the same story her boyfriend Aaron Quinn told Vallejo police.
"The detective here stated she was cooperative," Huskins' attorney, Jim Wagstaffe, said. "She answered his questions, that she disclosed she was the victim of a very serious crime."
It's a much different picture than what Vallejo police, who intially called the case a hoax, have described. In a recent motion, the lead detective said Huskins "denied being a victim and did not wish to speak to Huntington Beach police -- instead, she wanted to speak to her lawyer."
"It's false," Wagstaffe, said. "The notion that she wasn't cooperative has been debunked by the production of this report."
Although Huskins later reported she had been raped by Muller, she denied she'd been sexually assaulted when talking to Huntington Beach police. Wagstaffe had an explanation.
"She had been sexually assaulted twice and told by the assaulter if she disclosed that, she'd be killed or seriously injured," he said.
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Wagstaffe said the new report is crucial in proving Vallejo police mishandled the case.
"These documents are the beginning of a cascade of evidence in the real world that the Vallejo Police Department not only did not do its job, but made things up about the way it did its job," he said.
The Vallejo Police Department and the city of Vallejo declined to comment on the new report, citing a pending lawsuit.
The full, redacted Huntington Beach police report can be found here.
