Vallejo police slammed for bungling case in Netflix ‘American Nightmare’ series

The California police department at the center of the Netflix series “American Nightmare” has been blasted on social media for their dubious treatment of a woman who was kidnapped and raped.

The Vallejo Police Department and detective in charge of the Denise Huskins kidnapping case have been targeted after the documentary portrayed them as bungling cops who were more concerned with victim-blaming than solving the crime. 

“How does it feel to be publicly shamed and humiliated?” asked a commenter from Alabama.

“It’s not fun when the shoe is on the other foot is it? A serial rapist showed more sympathy for the victim than your police department did. Let that sink in.”

The series tells the story of Huskins and then-boyfriend Aaron Quinn.

On March 23, 2015, Huskins and Quinn were blindfolded and drugged by a man who broke into Quinn’s home.

Huskins was then kidnapped and taken to a cabin in Lake Tahoe where she was raped.

In police and FBI footage obtained by Netflix, Detective Mat Mustard mercilessly grills Quinn in an interrogation room. Meanwhile, Huskins was stuffed into a trunk by a sociopath and whisked off to Utah.

Mustard, who was incredulously named Officer of the Year, neglected even to check Quinn’s phone, which the kidnapper had pinged.

Commenters online were most shocked at Mustard’s comment to Huskins’ mother, Jane Remmele, after she informed him that her daughter had previously been a victim of sexual assault.

Mustard told her that women who have been abused will often fake another assault “to relive the thrill of it.”

“Officer of the year?” a Massachusetts woman posted. “May you be stripped of this and any title in the months to come. May your families turn on you and you live the rest of your lives in misery and lonely solitude. May detective Mustard never have a daughter who is a victim of sexual assault because we all know she will forced to suffer in silence.”

Eventually, Matthew Muller, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former soldier, was arrested and sent to prison for the crime after an officer in Lake Tahoe found a strand of Huskins’ hair on a pair of blindfolded goggles in his cabin.

Huskins and Quinn, who eventually married, settled a lawsuit with the City of Vallejo and its police department for $2.5 million.

A Yelp page belonging to the Vallejo Police Department was disabled due to “unusual activity.”

A Change.org petition called for Mustard’s resignation has garnered 2,700 signatures.