A trial over the alleged theft of handwritten drafts of Eagles hit songs such as “Hotel California” has come to an abrupt end.
According to the Associated Press, prosecutors dropped the criminal case midway through the trial.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Aaron Ginandez told the judge at 10 a.m. that prosecutors cited newly available emails that the defense said raised questions about the fairness of the trial. notified that the case would no longer proceed. The trial had been going on since the end of February.
The emails were revealed last week after Eagles co-founder Don Henley and other prosecution witnesses appeared to have decided to waive attorney-client privilege.
Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ lyric page stolen criminal trial is ‘about the names involved’: ‘Gold mine’
Don Henley appeared in court on February 26, 2024, to have his case abruptly dropped after his handwritten drafts of Eagles hits, including “Hotel California,” were allegedly stolen. (David Delgado 146187/Getty Images)
Prosecutors in recent days obtained 6,000 pages of correspondence between Henry, his lawyers and colleagues, and agreed that the defense had been effectively blindsided. The documents were provided to both sides in recent days after Henry and his lawyers apparently made a late-stage decision to waive attorney-client privilege to keep legal discussions confidential. It was provided to both of us.
“These delays in disclosure revealed relevant information that the defense would have had an opportunity to consider,” Ginandez said in court, according to the Associated Press.
In dismissing the case, Judge Curtis Farber said “witnesses and their attorneys” used attorney-client privilege to “obscure and conceal information they believe would be damaging.”
Dan Petrocelli, Henry’s new attorney, told Fox News Digital in a statement through Henry’s attorney that “attorney-client privilege is a fundamental guardrail in our judicial system. “We rarely, if ever, have to give it up for prosecution or defense.” “As the victim in the case, Mr. Henry has once again fallen victim to this unjust outcome. He will pursue all his rights in civil court.”
Mr. Henry’s new attorney, Dan Petrocelli, told Fox News Digital in a statement: “Mr. Henry has once again been the victim of this unjust outcome. He will pursue all his rights in civil court.” Ta. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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According to the original indictment filed by the New York District Attorney’s Office in 2022, rare book experts Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi, and Edward Kosinski were accused of “developing the Eagles’ song ‘Hotel California.’ He was indicted on charges of planning to sell approximately 100 pages of lyrics.
The combined value of these manuscripts is more than $1 million, according to the district attorney.
The prosecution claimed that the three spread false stories about the ownership of the manuscript in order to sell it.
The defense argued that the men legally obtained the draft from a writer who co-authored a biography of the Eagles with Henry decades ago, but that it was never published after Henry gave it to them. Kosinski, Inciardi and Horowitz have pleaded not guilty.
The three indicted in previous court proceedings were Craig Inciardi, Edward Kosinski and Glenn Horowitz. (Mary Atrafer)
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According to the indictment, the defendants obtained the pages through nonfiction author Ed Sanders, who was writing a biography of the band that was never published. Sanders reportedly kept the handwritten work and later sold the pages to rare book dealer Horowitz for $50,000.
According to the Associated Press, Kosinski’s attorney Scott Edelman said he would “evaluate next steps,” adding, “The district attorney in this case was blinded by celebrity fame and fortune; “I can no longer see the details of the incident,” he added. It was information they were not given. ”
Following the dismissal of the case, the Associated Press reported that Incardi said in a written statement that “the next step is to restore our reputation.”
Last week, Henry testified that the handwritten page had always been his property.
The Eagles’ current lineup includes Timothy Schmidt, Vince Gill, Don Henley, and Joe Walsh. Henry testified last week that the handwritten page had always been his property. (eagles.com)
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“I always knew those lyrics were my property. I never gifted them to anyone, never kept them or sold them,” Henry said in court.
Longtime Eagles manager Irving Azoff also recently testified that the handwritten lyrics page for “Hotel California” was originally “stolen” by Sanders.
“All these lyrics were very personal to him, part of the history of music, and it was completely unacceptable to him to have them stolen by others,” Azoff testified. He admitted that he did not know that Henry would transfer his own work, including most of the lyrics he wrote with Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey.
Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
