Ex-lawyer is jailed for 40 years for kidnapping and drugging woman who is suing cops for dismissing case as ‘Gone Girl’ hoax
Denise Huskins was held hostage for two days and sexually assaulted by Harvard educated attorney Mathew Muller
A WOMAN who cops accused of staging her own Gone Girl-style kidnapping has described her living 'nightmare' after her captor was jailed for 40 years.
Denise Huskins was drugged and dragged from her Californian home by Harvard-educated lawyer Matthew Muller, 39, – who held her hostage for two days and sexually assaulted her, reports the .
Cops initially branded the case a ‘hoax’ and likened it to popular book-turned-movie Gone Girl in which a women fakes her own kidnapping.
Speaking to disbarred attorney Muller in court, Huskins said: “You treated me like an object, a toy, an animal.”
Huskins described the two days of physical and psychological torture she endured after Muller snatched her from her San Francisco Bay Area home two years ago.
She said: “I still have nightmares every night. Sleep is not rest for me. It is a trigger.”
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Her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, who was bound and drugged during the first stage of the abduction, said he “cannot and will not ever be the same.”
US District Judge Troy Nunley called the abduction a “heinous, atrocious, horrible crime” as he sentenced Muller.
He had faced up to life in prison, but prosecutors agreed to recommend 40 years in exchange for his guilty plea.
In court, Muller said he felt “sick with shame” for the “pain and horror” he caused.
Shackled and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, he looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as he was sentenced.
Defense attorney Thomas Johnson argued for a 30-year sentence, saying his client has been diagnosed as manic and depressive and can be rehabilitated with proper treatment.
He told the judge: “They want him to be a monster to get to 40 years. Fine. Marginalise mental illness."
He declined comment after the hearing.
Muller used a remote-controlled drone to spy on Huskins and Quinn before he broke into their Vallejo home with a fake gun, tied up the couple and made them drink a sleep-inducing liquid, prosecutors said.
They were blindfolded while Muller played a pre-recorded message that made it seem as if there was more than one kidnapper.
He put Huskins in the trunk of his car, drove her to his home in South Lake Tahoe and held her there for two days before eventually releasing her in her hometown of Huntington Beach.
Investigators said they found videos of Muller arranging cameras in a bedroom and then recording himself twice sexually assaulting his blindfolded victim.
“The only way I got through it was to picture that it was Aaron that I was with,” Huskins said, sobbing uncontrollably until Quinn joined her and kissed her gently on the forehead.
Prosecutors cited the rapes as one of several aggravating factors justifying a 40-year sentence.
During and after the kidnapping, Muller used an anonymous email address to send messages to a reporter claiming that Huskins was abducted by a team of elite criminals.
In the bizarre series of emails, Muller claimed the gang kidnapped Huskins to practice their tactics.
After her release, Vallejo police called the kidnapping a hoax and erroneously likened it to the book and movie ‘Gone Girl’.
In author Gillian Flynn’s acclaimed novel a woman goes missing and then lies about being kidnapped when she reappears.
Investigators dropped that theory after Muller was arrested in an attempted robbery at another Bay Area home.
Authorities said they found a mobile phone that they traced to Muller and a subsequent search of a car and home turned up evidence.
Items found included a computer Muller stole from Quinn, linking the disbarred attorney to the abduction.
Vallejo police have since apologised.
Huskins is suing the city and two police officers, accusing them of defamation and inflicting emotional distress.
Muller, a former Marine, was admitted to practice law in California in 2011, and his state bar profile says he attended Harvard Law School.
He lost his law license in 2015 in an unrelated incident.
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