They still have the coins though. Vern does at least. He can still return them. The clock is ticking. As the events unfold in the next few months I think if Vern returns the coins now he can still keep himself and his accomplices out of jail, or minimize the legal liability at least. It's the same situation Karpeles was in when the "missing" coins were tracked to his wallet. It's obvious at this point Vern is guilty.
Now,after receiveship it will be good to look at Cryptsy wallets carefully and compare all these suspicious transactions(including money transactions of course).When we are talking about blockchain expertise,it is very hard to say what can be enough credentials for the court,because it is something so new,there are no school or something similar for that.Maybe these guys from Chain analysis ,which have company for blockchain expertise will have enough credentials for the court:
https://www.chainalysis.com/