American Nightmare: Where is Andrew Bidou now?

Netflix’s latest true crime saga American Nightmare has sparked a busy discussion, including about Chief of the Vallejo Police Department, Andrew Bidou – but where is he now? Here’s what we know. 

Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn are at the center of American Nightmare, a recently released documentary series that has quickly raced to first place on Netflix’s top 10 chart. Focus has now turned to the Vallejo PD officers for how they handled the case, with a petition launched to have Detective Mat Mustard held accountable. 

Similarly, FBI agent David Sesma has been at the forefront of conversation, at the very least due to the revelation that he was dating Andrea Roberts – Quinn’s ex-fiancée and the intended target of kidnapper Matthew Muller.

One other key figure in the case is Andrew Bidou, the Chief of the Vallejo Police Department and the man okaying many of Mustard’s moves – but what happened to him and what is he doing now?

American Nightmare: Where is Andrew Bidou now?

In 2019, Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou announced his retirement amid the department facing numerous allegations of misconduct, which culminated in Huskins and Quinn settling a lawsuit against them for $2.5 million. 

Since the civil case was settled out of court, both Bidou and Mustard didn’t face repercussions or discipline for their role in the investigation. However, this was just one of many controversies throughout his career in this position. 

Former Vallejo Police Captain and whistleblower John Whitney took out a lawsuit against the city of Vallejo over wrongful termination. In a transcript of the testimony seen by The Vallejo Sun, Whitney alleged that the Vallejo PD promoted rather than punished its most violent officers and that it didn’t investigate misconduct by officers involved in the Huskins kidnapping case. 

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He also accused Bidou of approving Mustard’s call to change the standards of the sergeant’s exam to get promoted, a position in which his salary climbed to a reported $401,000. “Captain Horton and I both protested this for a good amount of time in the chief’s office, with Mat Mustard saying that this is how it should be done,” Whitney testified. “The chief ultimately went with what Mat Mustard wanted.”

Another allegation is that Bidou knew about but did not act upon the sinister tradition of “badge bending,” whereby Vallejo police officers would bend the corner of their badges to mark every time a cop killed a civilian.

Bidou is mentioned in American Nightmare when Doug Rappaport, Huskins’ Defense Attorney, explains that he received a tip-off during the couple’s civil lawsuit. “According to the anonymous source, before the Vallejo Police Department had a national press conference, in which they called Denise and Aaron liars, Andrew Bidou told Officer Park to ‘burn that b*tch.’”

Following his retirement in 2019, Bidou served as the interim police chief before taking up a position as Emergency Response Program Manager at PG&E in 2020. However, he is no longer available on LinkedIn, meaning he could have retired for good now – where he will have access to $19,000 a month from the California Public Employees Retirement System.

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With thousands of Netflix subscribers tuning into American Nightmare, there has been an angry backlash to the fact that Bidou, Mustard, and Sesma never faced consequences for their roles in the Huskins case. 

“This ‘man’ [Mustard] should be terminated, stripped of his pension, and tossed in jail along with Andrew Bidou,” wrote one on X, while another said, “Mat Mustard, Andrew Bidou, Kenny Park & David Sesma are a disgrace, a stain on the entire department and should be penalized immediately.”

A third added: “Trying to calm my heart rate that none of the men involved at @VallejoPd or @FBI were capable of their jobs or even disciplined: Mat Mustard, Andrew Bidou, and David Sesma. Repulsive. #AmericanNightmare.”

American Nightmare is streaming on Netflix now – you can read more about where Mustard is now here, what happened to Sesma here, and more about the Vallejo Police Department here.