Denton insists returning it to Apple was the plan all along if the phone turned out to be authentic. But Wallin doesn't believe that argument would be of much use in court. "How many times do people say after they're caught that their intention was to return something?" he says. "Can someone raise that defense? Of course. That doesn't mean it's going to be believed."
I'm not getting it. Gawker did return the phone when Apple notified them that it was theirs, didn't they?
The fact that Apple had requested the phone back is what solidified the fact that it was indeed a genuine Apple prototype.