Of course he cheated. Its very obvious to anyone with a minimum of understanding of the game. The civil lawsuit against him was dismissed, because it was considered a gambling dispute, and californian courts dont get involved in such. Its a little strange, that the lawyer filing the case did not know that in avance.
Correct. Further to that, another poster (zinzir) and myself posed from the outset the case would prove difficult.
The suspicions were aired in public then tried in the 'court of Joey Ingram', a very silly move. By that time Postle and associate(s) had ample time to dispose of physical evidence. The police/FBI had not been approached regarding employing the possibility of a sting operation which is why, weeks later (if approached at all) they likely declined to get involved. They knew physical evidence was an issue.
Further to that, if the case had ever been presented to a jury (another matter which remained unclear) there were countless hours (hundreds) of the commentary team, including Veronica Brill at times, stating over and over again what a brilliant player Mike Postle was.
However, the case was not a total waste of time as the poker community was made painfully aware this type of stunt could be pulled with lax security. The other lesson being this was of course completely the wrong way to handle such a situation. Bring any and all suspicions to the police/FBI first and let them decide how to proceed.