I can’t totally blame the prosecutor for this. Too often, the public would demand his head be on a spike if he were to not carry forward a case because of inadequate evidence.
My daughter’s purse was stolen a few years ago and the thief was captured, the depleted checkbook and ID recovered and my daughter charged by the state prosecutor with writing all the bad checks the woman wrote and ordered to make all the merchants whole or face prosecution. Daughter had put a stop on the whole checkbook before any of the checks got back to the bank. A lawyer friend got things delayed and delayed until that year’s election in which the prosecutor lost and the charges were finally dropped. She is still listed as having been charged with and “no disposition.”