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- By Bernd Debusmann Jr.
- BBC News, Washington
Image source, fake images
Don Henley of the Eagles had claimed that a notebook containing Hotel California lyrics had been stolen before it was put up for sale in 2012.
Prosecutors have dismissed a case against three men accused of conspiring to sell handwritten lyrics to the Eagles’ famous hit, Hotel California.
A notebook containing the lyrics was allegedly stolen before the trio purchased it, prosecutors said in February.
The three men (Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski) pleaded not guilty to the charges in a New York court.
However, new evidence called into question the fairness of the case.
Former Eagles member Don Henley had claimed that a yellow-lined notepad with Hotel California and other Eagles lyrics was stolen before it was put up for sale in 2012.
The notebook was sold to Horowitz for $50,000 in 2005 by Ed Sanders, a writer who had worked on a biography of the Eagles in the late 1970s.
The band had reportedly allowed Sanders access to their files, which included notepads full of lyrics. Henley later told a grand jury that she never gave the lyrics to Sanders.
Mr. Henley’s claims prompted an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and charges of conspiracy to possess stolen property and other crimes against the three men. Neither was accused of stealing the documents.
On Wednesday, Deputy District Attorney Aaron Ginandes told the trial judge that prosecutors were dismissing the case because of newly disclosed emails that defense attorneys said raised concerns about fairness.
The emails were discovered after Henley apparently waived attorney-client privilege last week after testifying. In total, more than 6,000 pages of material emerged.
“These late disclosures revealed relevant information that the defense should have had the opportunity to explore in cross-examination of…witnesses,” Ginandes wrote in court papers.
Judge Curtis Farber accused the witnesses and their attorneys of using attorney-client privilege to “obfuscate and conceal information that they believed would be prejudicial.”
The dismissal is a blow to the Attorney General’s Office, which began investigating the case years ago.
“We are pleased that the district attorney’s office has finally made the right decision to drop this case,” said Horowitz’s lawyer, Jonathan Bach, quoted by CBS, the BBC’s American partner. “It should never have been brought in.”
An attorney for Kosinski, Scott Edelman, said the decision was “too little, too late” and that they would examine possible legal action on their own.
The 1976 album Hotel California has sold 26 million copies nationwide, making it one of the best-selling albums in American history.