Honestly, that would be very difficult and requires multiple different departments, many of which would have NO dog in the fight, in order to work. I was repeatedly told as a state employee that deleting an email did not mean it was gone forever; in fact, it was out there forever on our giant server.
From a PR standpoint, I wonder if they settle just to keep all that stuff from coming to light. Even if they were to win (and with qualified immunity, the odds are in their favor), the court of public opinion will shred them.
Normally a finding of probable cause is fatal in a case like this. I have no confidence in the Douglas County DA but doubt she would have made such stupid mistakes as sending messages of this type but there is another angle here. The Morris angle. This was not available at the preliminary hearing because the DA never disclosed it. Why? They have a duty to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence. Now maybe an alternate suspect who it is alleged committed a remarkably similar offense, at the same location, in close time proximity and also just happened to be there at the time this occurred is just pure coincidence, random chance and not exculpatory. Problem is after his lawyers found out about Morris and sought to introduce that evidence the DA fought like heck to keep it out using that outstanding legal argument it was just a coincidence without showing any proof. The trial judge saw right through that and ruled the evidence was relevant. Now once alaskaillini's fishing starts I suspect it will come out the DA made the decision not to disclose it. One thing about fishing, once you start you might catch the big one
