Methinks the late Douglas Adams may have spotted this tendency for reporters to pebble-dash any pre-trial reportage with the word "alleged", Just In Case. In The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, the protagonist had been up before the beak on a traffic charge, during which her somewhat ramshackle vehicle had been called "the alleged car" by the constable giving evidence; this expression thereafter becomes a term of endearment for said vehicle.