Missing Evidence

I return to the subject of a court case, in which I was a state witness. The case was struck off the roll last week, in spite of the prosecution having digital audio of the accused admitting to the crime. I was disturbed, when I left the courthouse. But in trying to make sense of it, my thoughts dwelt on everything but the obvious. A few hours later, it dawned on me: "They didn't have the evidence!" I returned to the courthouse. I ran into the defence attorney. I was surprised that she would speak to me at all. I asked her if she had the critical evidence. She said, with a hint of accusation: "It was never made available to us." I entered the court. Only the prosecutor still stood there -- the courtroom was empty. I asked him who had the critical evidence. He said: "I have no idea. There is nothing in the docket." OBSERVATION: Here I had the explanation for it all. My intuition was correct. Somebody, somewhere, had lost the evidence, or removed it. It was a small USB drive. So we paid the investigator, the defence, the prosecution, the magistrate, the interpreter, the clerk, and a whole lot besides, over two sessions of the court -- while I myself ran up significant expenses -- all because nobody would say: "I lost the USB." In fact, it was more than the USB, but that was the critical bit.