Manhattan prosecutors moved Wednesday to drop charges against three men accused of a plot to steal handwritten lyrics to the Eagles’ hit song “Hotel California.” This comes after the band’s frontman Don Henley admitted that more than 6,000 pages of evidence had been submitted late.
Judge Curtis Farber said in a hearing Wednesday morning that Henry and his attorneys tried to weaponize attorney-client privilege to “obfuscate and conceal information that they believed to be damaging.” He said that something shocking happened along the way.
Eagles band member Don Henley enters the courtroom before testifying. Stephen Hirsch
Charges against bookseller Glenn Horowitz, former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inchardi, and memorabilia seller Edward Kosinki have now been dropped.
Longtime Eagles managers Henry and Irving Azoff repeatedly invoked attorney-client privilege while on the stand as witnesses at trial, against the prosecutor’s office’s “explicit and repeated requests.” prosecutors said.
But their decision to invoke and then “waive” that privilege “led to the belated production of approximately 6,000 pages of material that should have given the defendants’ lawyers the opportunity to cross-examine.” ” wrote Assistant District Attorney Aaron Ginandez. Letter to the court.
Judge Farber praised District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office for “taking a slice of the humble pie” and moving to dismiss the charges.
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