I believe this is where Sneddon has fit in the "stolen furniture" accusations. The law says "extortion is the obtaining of property from another..." So Sneddon is going to claim that Michael illegally obtained the family's furniture. Of all of the charges, I think this one is the one that concerns me most because it does seem that Michael ended up with the family's furniture somehow. I don't know enough of what happened with the furniture to figure out how they'll defend against this charge yet, but I'm sure there is a reasonable defense against it. Just because you have someone's furniture doesn't mean you obtained it illegally. I suspect the furniture was obtained as part of the process of moving the mother to a new home, but I believe the mother was agreeable to having Michael move her. The only disagreement was that Michael wasn't buying her a fancy new house, but got her an apartment instead.