The prosecutors in new York have dropped criminal charges against three men accused of conspiring to sell stolen notebooks with handwritten lyrics to the Eagles' Hotel California and two other songs after emails were revealed that undermined the premise of the complaint.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Aaron Ginandes told the court Wednesday morning that he no longer wants to pursue charges that last week saw the group's co-founder Don Henley take the stand for two days to claim that the legal pads had been broken into. his Malibu home.
“The people recognize that termination is appropriate in this case,” Ginandes said.
The collapse of the trial against the three men — rare book collector Glenn Horowitz, memorabilia salesman Edward Kosinski and former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi — comes after nearly two weeks of testimony. The accused pleaded not guilty.
The court heard that the Eagles commissioned writer Ed Sanders to write an official account of the group at the height of its fame in the late 1970s. But the members hadn't appreciated the pages Sanders had turned, saying in court that they were too full of “beatnik” jargon.
They then suggested Sanders examine their work process and gave him access to about 100 pages of lyrics. In 2012, some of the lyrics were put up for sale on an online rock 'n' roll memorabilia site, and again at Sotheby's two years later.
After the case collapsed, a lawyer for Henley said the musician still wanted his work returned to him.
“As a victim in this case, Mr. Henley has once again been subjected to this unjust outcome,” attorney Dan Petrocelli said in a statement. “He will assert all his rights before the civil courts.”
Prosecutors say the three men knew the pages had a questionable chain of custody and conspired to sell them despite questions about their provenance. At trial, Henley testified that he “never offered or gave them to anyone to keep or sell.”
But as a prosecution witness, Henley was exposed to questions about his memory and personal circumstances in the late 1970s, when the band was on the verge of breaking up.
He said he didn't remember what he had for breakfast last Friday, but he did remember that the Eagles had played at Wembley Stadium in London in the summer of 1975 and had performed with Elton John and the Beach Boys.
He was also questioned about his cocaine use, saying he had never been a “drug-filled zombie” and that if he had been, he would never have “accomplished everything I have accomplished before 1980 and after 1980”.
Henley was also questioned about his arrest in 1980, when authorities said they found a 16-year-old girl naked and overdosed in his home. The drummer and singer pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was sentenced to probation and a $2,500 fine.
The case collapsed after Henley agreed last week that communications with his lawyers could be included in the court record. Defense attorneys later argued that about 6,000 pages of documents contained information they were unable to use during cross-examination.
“These late disclosures revealed relevant information that the defense should have had the opportunity to explore during cross-examination of the People’s witnesses,” Ginandes wrote.
In dismissing the case, Judge Curtis Farber said “the witnesses and their attorneys” used attorney-client privilege “to obscure and hide information they believed to be prejudicial.”
Outside of court, reported the Washington Post, Horowitz's attorney, Jonathan Bach, said, “We are pleased that the DA's office ultimately made the right decision in dropping this case.” This should never have been brought.