Man accused in Calif. abduction that had been called a hoax

This is a June 2015 booking photo released by the Dublin, Calif., police department, showing Matthew Muller after he was arrested on robbery and assault charges. On Monday, July 13, 2015, Muller was named as a suspect in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman from Vallejo in March of 2015 that police originally believed was a hoax. (AP Photo/Dublin PD) This is a June 2015 booking photo released by the Dublin, Calif., police department, showing Matthew Muller after he was arrested on robbery and assault charges. On Monday, July 13, 2015, Muller was named as a suspect in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman from Vallejo in March of 2015 that police originally believed was a hoax. (AP Photo/Dublin PD)

By Associated Press July 14, 2015 4 min read

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Months after police labeled as a hoax the case of a California woman who said she had been kidnapped for ransom, federal prosecutors announced they charged a disbarred Harvard-educated lawyer with her abduction.

Matthew Muller, of Orangevale, California, was charged last month after he was arrested in a home-invasion robbery in the San Francisco Bay Area that had similarities to the kidnapping, the FBI said. The allegations were in an affidavit that was unsealed Monday.

The kidnapping case began when the Denise Huskins’ boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, reported kidnappers broke into the couple’s Vallejo home on March 23, abducted her and demanded $8,500 in ransom.

Quinn’s lawyers have said he awoke to a bright light in his face, and two kidnappers bound and drugged him.

Huskins, 29, turned up safe two days later in her hometown of Huntington Beach, where she says she was dropped off. She showed up just hours before the ransom was due.