In article , Home Guy wrote:

Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds wrote:

Man electrocuted while allegedly stealing wiring

Everyone here that was posted in defense of the use of the word
"allegedly" was saying that it was done to protect the newspaper
or newswire company from a lawsuit that could or would be launched
by the dead criminal's family or estate.

how is "investigators believe he was trying to steal." any different
from "allegedly"?

Who's saying that it is different? Or the same?

If it walks like a duck and squawks like a duck, you don't say that a
duck alledgedly walked and sqawked. You say that a duck walked and
squawked.

who cares what the duck did?



If you find some dead boob on the ground beside some cut power cables
and cutting tools nearby in a facility that he had to break into, you
don't be a namby pamby and say he was "allegedly" trying to steal the
power cable. You say that he died while trying to steal the cable.

of course there is always that niggling possibility that he actually heard
noises in the facility, decided to investigate, stumbled upon the tools, scared
off the real perps and somehow contacted the live power cable and electrocuted
himself.

Odds are that your interpretation is spot on, but I hate it when conclusions are
jumped to and that leads to not investigating other possibilities