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\"At 1:41 a.m. [on July 8, 2016] there was a text, according to the forensic report, that [used the alleged victim's first name, that urged him] to \"leave and go home,\" Jackson said in court.In response, according to Jackson, the alleged victim texted back, \"‘Should I, actually?'\"

Portions of subsequently-deleted text exchanges cited by Jackson turned up the words \"picture\" and \"help,\" according to the attorney.

Before \"he handed the phone to police, he deleted the entire message except the word 'help',\" Jackson contended. \"Their extraction report only shows 'help.' That's the kind of cleansing [the accuser] and Heather were undertaking.\"

In court papers, Garabedian said that authorities returned the phone to the father of the victim after completing a forensic exam of the contents. The father, according to court papers, said he has no memory of receiving the phone.

Legal experts said that paper trails usually follow the movement of criminal case evidence.

\"PHOTO:
Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Kevin Spacey is pictured on the red carpet in New York, June 11, 2017.
>

\"You would, generally, when turning back evidence that's involved in an active criminal case, you would expect there to be a receipt of the property turned over,\" said Stewart Ryan, a former Montgomery County prosecutor in Pennsylvania, who successfully convicted Bill Cosby of sex assault charges last year.

\"At least in my experience, those receipts are signed by the law enforcement officer turning it over and the person who receives it.\"

A spokesperson for the Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe declined to respond to a question from ABC News about whether a receipt for the phone or any other record was issued to the accuser's father by local authorities, or otherwise generated in law enforcement records.

If the phone cannot be located by July 8, Nantucket District Court judge Thomas S. Barrett wrote in an order this week, the accuser, his mother and Garabedian \"shall appear [in court] and give testimony on the whereabouts and condition of the subject phone.\"

Attorneys separately representing Spacey and his accuser did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new twists in the case.

ABC News' Matt Foster contributed to this report.

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