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A routine records request at a district attorney's office has exposed potential evidence tampering in a high-stakes extortion case. Court documents reference text messages and settlement offers that prosecutors are calling extortion, but the actual evidence has vanished from public files.
The Missing Evidence Trail
The investigation centers on alleged extortion by a lawyer who made settlement offers in a civil case. Court filings specifically reference text messages and solicitation documents that prosecutors claim constitute criminal extortion. Yet when reporters attempted to locate these critical pieces of evidence, they hit a wall.
The court clerk's office claims the referenced documents simply don't exist in their files. This creates a troubling gap between what prosecutors cite in their witness lists and what they're willing to make available to the public.
When Officials Start Hiding
The story takes a darker turn when staff at the district attorney's office began avoiding the records request. Multiple employees promised assistance but then disappeared, leaving reporters waiting in lobbies while officials retreated to back offices.
This pattern of avoidance raises serious questions about transparency in a case where public officials are alleging criminal behavior. If the evidence is legitimate, why the reluctance to produce it through standard open records procedures?
The Extortion Allegations Themselves
According to court documents, the case involves a lawyer who allegedly made improper settlement offers that crossed the line into extortion. The witness list specifically mentions these offers and related communications as key evidence in the prosecution's case.
But without access to the actual documents, the public cannot evaluate whether these allegations have merit or represent prosecutorial overreach. The gap between what officials claim exists and what they'll produce creates reasonable doubt about the entire case.
Questions That Demand Answers
The evasive behavior by both court clerks and prosecutor staff suggests something more significant than routine bureaucratic delays. When multiple offices claim ignorance about documents they themselves reference in legal filings, the public deserves explanations.
Watch the full investigation to see exactly how officials responded when pressed for these mysterious documents and what their evasions reveal about this alleged extortion case.
