EXCLUSIVE: Denise Huskins' Uncle Blasts Police Handling Of Alleged Kidnapping Hoax

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — An hour after the press conference announcing the latest developments in the Denise Huskins case, and Vallejo Police announcing they believed it was all "an orchestrated event and not a kidnapping," Huskins' uncle Jeff Kane contacted CBS13's Steve Large.

Here is a transcript of that conversation:

STEVE LARGE: What are your thoughts on that press conference?

JEFF KANE: I thought it was reckless. I thought it was overzealous. I thought it was premature. I thought that it drew conclusions that aren't supported by the facts. He seems to be saying that because Ms. Huskins didn't hop on a plane the moment they asked her to, that that means this entire thing is a hoax, she's being uncooperative. The hostile tactics that the police exhibited at that press conference at the very reason why people in these types of situations get lawyers. Because they're not seasoned in all of this. They haven't been abducted before. There's always suspicion on everybody until they solve the case. And for them to conclude that because she's being careful and seeking legal counsel, she's complicit in this thing in some way—that's reckless. To say that she owes the taxpayers money to pay for all this. We're two days into this.

LARGE: So police are saying …

KANE: … a kneejerk reaction.

LARGE: Police are saying one thing. Are you saying another, that Denise Huskins was in fact a victim and was abducted at this point?

KANE: Well obviously, I don't know for a fact, but that's my sincere belief with every part of my being. Yes. I don't think this is a hoax in any way. And I think within a very short period of time, it's going to be revealed to have not been a hoax and instead one of the most tragic stories you could ever hear. And a lot of people are going to have egg on their face, if that indeed happens.

LARGE: Have you been able to talk to Denise, and what is she saying that you can tell us right now?

KANE: I can't tell you anything that Denise and I have talked about. I am an attorney. And so I've got ethical obligations. I can't speak to anything that Denise and I have ever spoken about.

LARGE: What is the next step for you and your family?

KANE: After we're done scratching our heads and figuring out what we're going to do to mitigate the character assassination that just took place, I don't know. Certainly the attorney that's representing Ms. Huskins will probably take the lead on it. The truth, if things are as I believe them to be, that's going to set the entire record straight, and how that story gets delivered to the police I don't know. That's probably going to be handled by Ms. Huskins' attorney. But I believe once it is delivered and people sit back and are objective, they'll see it for what I believe it to be—one of the most tragic stories you're ever going to hear.

LARGE: Well that would be something.

KANE: Yeah, it would be. And you've been in this business a long time, let me ask you a question. When's the last time you saw a police department in a big case like this come out that aggressively and that conclusively that fast?

LARGE: I can't remember covering any case like this before.

KANE: Well, OK. It may not have been a kidnapping, but certainly there's missing persons, there's murders where wives are missing and the husband is claiming 'I know nothing about it,' and the police suspect he did know something about it. But even in those instances—we're not even 72 hours into this and we've got a police department coming out that emphatically and drawing conclusions that because somebody hasn't spoken to them that's what this means, then it must all be crap? That's reckless police work in my opinion. And hopefully it was just some tactical misdirection, so that they can't claim it was incompetence or recklessness. I'm just blown away.

LARGE: From my perspective, there's so much confusion, because there's a limited amount of information that's being released both from the police side and those involved.

KANE: For me to give you what I know or what I've heard, I don't think that's appropriate right now. And Denise is going to be the one who is speaking to all of this. But why the police are giving you what they're giving you, I don't know. Why they're not giving you what they're not giving you, I don't know. But I wish I could help you out to put the puzzle together a little bit better, because I hate leaving it where it presently stands, which is we look like complete idiots, and the public is ready to—based upon all the comments I see on the Internet right now, they're almost ready to hang the family in the town square.

LARGE: If the police called you, you would talk to them?

KANE: Well that's a good point. Did you see the press conference where they said no family members are returning their calls and they can't get in contact with any of them.

LARGE: Right.

KANE: Here's my quote for that: Nobody has ever called me. And I've been up the whole time, right next to [Denise Huskins' father] Mike the entire time and I've probably taken five of your phone calls. I've picked up the phone every time it's rang no matter who calls, and the police department has never called me once. Yet they get up in a press conference and say the entire family's not calling them back. What about the dude that was standing next to the father for the last day and a half? What about that guy? Did you call him?

LARGE: Is Mike Huskins choosing not to call them?

KANE: Mike Huskins is a 60-some-odd-year-old man with an iPhone that's going off like every second—a text, a phone call an email, it's nonstop. He's having trouble keeping a battery charged talking to all the people that are calling him. Many of you guys are calling him from phone numbers he doesn't recognize, and so there's a very logical reason why Mike might not be picking up every time the police department calls. He's not avoiding them and he never has been. They say 'Oh we haven't heard from him since 11 a.m.' I tell you, when I do the math, I don't think he even got there until almost 11 a.m. After things had settled down a little bit, he left to go to Vallejo, and I bet he was there almost 2 p.m. Yet the police come up in that press conference and say we haven't heard from this uncooperative individual since 11 a.m. It's complete bulls---. It's factual, it's verifiable bulls---.