On Wednesday (March 6), prosecutors dropped charges faced by three men in a high-profile case surrounding hand-written lyrics to songs from the Eagles album Hotel California.
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Per the Associated Press (AP), "prosecutors agreed that defense lawyers had essentially been blindsided by 6,000 pages of communications involving Henley and his attorneys and associates. Prosecutors and the defense got the material only in the past few days, after Henley and his lawyers apparently made a late-in-the-game decision to waive their attorney-client privilege shielding legal discussions."
Thus, all criminal charges were dropped. However, Henley intends to pursue the matter still in civil court.
"As the victim in this case, Mr. Henley has once again been victimized by this unjust outcome," Petrocelli said in a statement (as quoted by the AP).
The trial opened on Feb. 21 in Manhattan. Rare book dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski were facing criminal charges for trying to sell the hand-written lyrics which Eagles co-founder Don Henley and his legal team claimed were stolen.
The case dates back to 2012, when some of the 80-plus documents in question went up for auction. It became a criminal matter 10 years later when the Manhattan district attorney's office first pressed charges against the three defendants.
The lyrics in question include not just the song "Hotel California" but also "Life in the Fast Lane," "New Kid in Town" and other songs from the same era of the legendary band's run in the '70s. Henley denies the defense's claims that he gave the lyrics away, insisting that the hand-written originals are "very personal."
Read on for more details about the now-resumed criminal case involving songs off one of the top-selling albums of all time.
The Ed Sanders Dispute
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Per The Guardian, longtime Eagles manager Irving Azoff testified on day one that the band pushed for years to recover over 100 pages of lyrics from journalist Ed Sanders, who was working on a biography about the band over 40 years ago. Sanders' first draft of his book was rejected by the band, sparking a long dispute between all parties involved about Sanders' agreed-to fee to write a biography that ultimately was never published.
A co-founder of '60s proto-punk band the Fugs, Sanders kept the hand-written lyrics in question. Much of the dispute comes down to whether or not the band gifted Sanders the documents of it he kept them without the group's consent. An answer to this question would have likely cleared up if Sanders had a right to sell the lyrics to Horowitz for $50,000 in 2005.
Horowitz later sold the lyrics to Inciarti, who'd later be suspended by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame over the charges, as well as Kosinski, owner of memorabilia company Gotta Have Rock and Roll.
ABC News reported that there's multiple tales about how Sanders attained the lyrics. Some accounts have him finding them discarded in a dressing room. Others have him attaining the documents from either a stage assistant or from the late Glenn Frey.
"Sanders is a major respected literary figure who served as the Eagles' authorized biographer, of course they readily provided him with documents," Horowitz's defense attorney Jonathan Bach said (as quoted by The Guardian).
It was the three collectors in possession of the documents that were on trial, not Sanders.
The Criminal Case
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When some of the lyrics went for sale through Gotta Have Rock and Roll, Henley bought them himself for $8,500. Afterwards, Henley filed a stolen goods report. Police raided the accused parties' home in 2019. Charges from the Manhattan district attorney's office followed in 2022.
"New York is a world-class hub for art and culture, and those who deal cultural artifacts must scrupulously follow the law," said DA Alvin Bragg in 2022 (as quoted by Vulture). "There is no room for those who would seek to ignore the basic expectations of fair dealing and undermine the public's confidence and trust in our cultural trade for their own ends."
All three defendants faced conspiracy in the fourth degree charges, which could've carried up to a four year prison sentence, as well as charges of criminal possession of stolen property. Horowitz was also charged with two counts of hindering prosecution. All three had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Per The Guardian, "Kosinski's defense attorney, Matthew Laroche, argued the case should never have been brought due to a lack of evidence and would call for it to be dismissed once the prosecution rested."
Furthermore, Vulture reported that "the defense in this case claims that Henley took advantage of prosecutors who are also fans of the Eagles, leading to criminal charges rather than a civil case or settlement." Per the Associated Press, Kosinski's lawyer argues that one of the DA's office's investigators got chastised by a prosecutor for attempting to score backstage passes to an Eagles concert.
Typically, disputes over memorabilia get settled long before reaching a criminal trial.
Henley's Testimony
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Aside from Azoff's testimony, Henley has taken the stand. The Eagles drummer testified that Sanders was given permission to view the documents, not keep them.
"Mr. Sanders kept it in his residence, his garage, for 30 years, and then it was up for sale on the internet. I believed that that was a crime," Henley said (as quoted by ABC News).
Henley was asked in court about his past drug use as well as his 1980 arrest after a naked 16-year-old girl was found overdosing in the rocker's Los Angeles residence.
"I wanted to forget about everything that was happening with the band, and I made a poor decision which I regret to this day," Henley testified (as quoted by the LA Times). "I've had to live with it for 44 years. I'm still living with it today, in this courtroom. Poor decision."
