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California

Suspect in abduction once called a hoax set to plead guilty

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    FILE - This undated file photo released by the Vallejo Police Department shows Denise Huskins. Matthew Muller, a disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney, was set to plead guilty in a kidnapping case in California that police initially dismissed as a hoax, the U.S. Attorney's office said Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016. Muller was expected to enter a new plea on Thursday, said Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the office in Sacramento. Muller previously pleaded not guilty to a kidnapping charge that prosecutors say stemmed from his abduction of Huskins from her Vallejo home in March 2015. (Vallejo Police Department via AP) (The Associated Press)

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    Lawyer Anthony Douglas Rappaport speaks at a news conference with his clients, Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn, right, in San Francisco, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016. Matthew Muller, a disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping Huskins in a bizarre case that police in California initially dismissed as a hoax. (AP Photo/Sudhin Thanawala) (The Associated Press)

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    FILE - This undated file photo released by the Vallejo Police Department shows Denise Huskins. Matthew Muller, a disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney, was set to plead guilty in a kidnapping case in California that police initially dismissed as a hoax, the U.S. Attorney's office said Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016. Muller was expected to enter a new plea on Thursday, said Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the office in Sacramento. Muller previously pleaded not guilty to a kidnapping charge that prosecutors say stemmed from his abduction of Huskins from her Vallejo home in March 2015. (Vallejo Police Department via AP) (The Associated Press)

SAN FRANCISCO – A disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney charged with a bizarre kidnapping that police initially dismissed as a hoax planned to plead guilty Thursday to snatching the young woman from her California home last year, federal prosecutors said.

Matthew Muller was set to enter the new plea, said Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento, but she did not provide further details. No documents were immediately available laying out the terms of the change.

Muller previously pleaded not guilty to abducting Denise Huskins in March 2015. Her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, said kidnappers broke into the couple's Vallejo home, took Huskins and demanded $8,500 as a ransom — a figure that police have said they found small for what would have been an elaborate kidnapping.

Huskins turned up safe two days later in her hometown of Huntington Beach, where she says she was dropped off. After she reappeared, Vallejo police called the kidnapping a hoax.

Huskins sued, accusing police of wrongly likening the case to the movie "Gone Girl" and damaging the reputations of her and her boyfriend.

Attorneys for police have said investigators doubted Quinn's account of the abduction and grew more skeptical when Huskins refused to reunite with her family soon after she reappeared.

Muller was later charged. A call to his attorney, Thomas Johnson, was not immediately returned.

Johnson has said Muller has bipolar disorder. In a court filing this week, prosecutors asked a judge to inquire during Thursday's hearing about Muller's mental condition and medications to make sure he understands the proceedings and his rights.

Muller 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 last year over allegations that he took a $1,250 advance from a client then failed to file a green card application for the person's son.