During the early hours of March 23, 2015, plaintiff Denise Huskins, 29, and her then-boyfriend, plaintiff Aaron Quinn, 30, both physical therapists, were at Quinn’s home in Vallejo when an intruder entered, assaulted them, held them captive, drugged them and kidnapped Huskins. Quinn then received multiple communications demanding ransom for Huskins, so he spent several hours uncertain about how to proceed to ensure Huskins’ safety. He ultimately decided to contact the Vallejo Police Department at about 1:50 p.m. While captive, Huskins was raped twice by the intruder, who told her that he was part of a gang and was filming the rapes to use against her if she reported them to the police. After the second rape, the intruder told Huskins that she would be released. He then threatened, drugged and blindfolded her again, and drove her for hours. Huskins was eventually released near her parents’ homes in Huntington Beach on March 25, 2015. As a result, she contacted her father and the Huntington Beach Police Department. After the police arrived, Huskins spoke with the Huntington Beach police officers for an hour and provided details of the intrusion, kidnapping and her release. However, she denied the rapes out of fear of retaliation from the intruder. Huskins’ aunt and a cousin, an attorney, then arrived, and the cousin spoke with Vallejo Police Detective Matthew Mustard on behalf of Huskins. Huskins later travelled back to Vallejo by commercial air, rather than by a jet provided by the Vallejo Police Department. When she returned to Vallejo, she requested a sexual assault exam and spent two full days speaking with the Vallejo Police Department. However, she was told that the police were skeptical of the crime. The Vallejo Police Department also issued press releases and held press conferences, led by Vallejo Police Lieutenant Kenny Park, in which the department suggested that Huskins and Quinn were responsible for Huskins’s disappearance. The department also issued statements claiming that the community was safe because the kidnappers did not exist there. The case went unsolved for more than two months until officials arrested Matthew Muller, a former Marine-turned-Harvard-educated attorney, for a separate home invasion burglary. Investigators then recovered evidence from the subject Vallejo kidnapping, including a video of Muller sexually assaulting a blindfolded Huskins. Muller was sentenced to 40 years in prison in March 2018, after pleading guilty to a federal kidnapping count. Huskins and Quinn sued Park; Mustard; and the officers’ employer, the city of Vallejo. Huskins and Quinn alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted defamation in violation of state law and the Fourteenth Amendment, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. They also alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted an unreasonable seizure of Quinn in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and a false arrest of Quinn in violation of state law. In addition, they alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress in violation of state law as to both of them. Quinn testified about how the intruder demanded information about his finances, account and email passwords, and personal history. The intruder informed Quinn that he would kidnap Huskins for ransom, and ordered Quinn to wait for further communication by his cell phone and through his own email account. The intruder then ordered Quinn to remain on a couch within an area marked off by tape and threatened to harm Huskins’ and Quinn’s family if he moved. In addition, the intruder told Quinn that he would be monitored by surveillance cameras to ensure his compliance. Quinn provided blood and DNA samples to the Vallejo Police Department, and the police department took his clothing and, in exchange, provided him with a dirty T-shirt and pants marked “Solano Prison” down the side. Quinn was interrogated for 18 hours by the Vallejo Police Department, led by Mustard, and that when Quinn asked to speak with his family, he was allegedly told, inaccurately, that they were not at the station. Thus, Quinn claimed that the officers quickly focused on him as a suspect in Huskins’s disappearance and ignored evidence that the intruder left behind. Quinn claimed that when the Vallejo Police Department released him on March 24, 2015, it tried to secure more media coverage by forcing him to exit the front of the station, where media congregated, while sleep deprived and wearing pants marked “Solano Prison.” However, he claimed that a lawyer his brother hired that morning arranged a more discrete exit. Huskins testified that when she was kidnapped, she was forced into the trunk of Quinn’s car, which the intruder drove, and then transferred to the trunk of a second car. She claimed that while she was in the trunk of the second car, she lost consciousness from a sedative, during which time, she was driven to an unknown home, and tied to a bed with zip ties and a bicycle lock. She was also forced to wear blacked out swim goggles as a blindfold and forced to record a proof of life tape. Huskins claimed that after she was released, she travelled back to Vallejo by commercial air, rather than by a jet provided by the Vallejo Police Department, because she was frightened of the intruder, the media, and the police, whom she had been told were skeptical of the crime and were offering her immunity. She also claimed that when she returned to Vallejo, she requested a sexual assault exam and spent two full days speaking with the police department, but that the Vallejo Police Department still issued press releases and held press conferences that included allegations that she and Quinn were responsible for her disappearance. Huskins also claimed that the Vallejo Police Department’s statements referred to the book and movie “Gone Girl”, called their ordeal a hoax, and said she and Quinn owed the city an apology for plundering resources on the investigation. She further claimed that the statements alleged that the community was safe because the kidnapper(s) did not exist and that the Vallejo Police Department’s strong public claims caused its statements to be widely disseminated in the media. Defense counsel contended that it is not uncommon for investigators to believe that a significant other of a victim is somehow involved and that the investigators were aggressive because they were trying to find the perpetrator. Counsel also contended that the investigators felt that the kidnapping and home invasion situation was so bizarre that it was unbelievable. In addition, defense counsel contended that when Huskins showed up after she was released, she seemed calm and was not physically hurt, so the officers were doubtful a rape occurred., Huskins and Quinn were both diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. As a result, they both sought counseling, which they are continuing to undergo. Thus, Huskins and Quinn sought recovery of damages for their past and future emotional pain and suffering. The couple is now engaged.