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The trial surrounding the allegedly stolen handwritten drafts of Eagles hits like “Hotel California” has come to an abrupt end.
According to the Associated Press, prosecutors dropped their criminal case mid-trial.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Aaron Ginandes told the judge at 10 a.m. that prosecutors would no longer pursue the case, citing newly available emails that defense attorneys said raised questions about the fairness of the trial. The process has been ongoing since the end of February.
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The emails surfaced as Eagles co-founder Don Henley apparently decided to waive attorney-client privilege last week after he and other prosecution witnesses had already testified.
EAGLES' “HOTEL CALIFORNIA” CRIMINAL CASE OVER STOLEN LYRIC PAGES IS “ABOUT THE NAMES INVOLVED”: “A GOLD MINE”
Don Henley, seen here in court on Feb. 26, 2024, saw the case over the allegedly stolen handwritten drafts of Eagles hits like “Hotel California” abruptly dismissed. (David Delgado 146187/Getty Images)
Prosecutors agreed that defense attorneys were virtually blindsided in recent days when they received 6,000 pages of communications from Henley and his lawyers and staff. The material was only made available to both sides in recent days, after Henley and his lawyers apparently decided late in the game to waive their attorney-client privilege in order to keep legal discussions confidential.
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“These delayed disclosures brought to light relevant information that the defense should have examined,” Ginandes told the court, according to the AP.
In dismissing the case, Judge Curtis Farber said that “witnesses and their attorneys” used attorney-client privilege “to obscure and conceal information that they believed would be damaging.”
Dan Petrocelli, Henley's newly hired attorney, told Fox News Digital in a statement from Henley's representatives: “Attorney-client privilege is a fundamental guardrail in our justice system, and rarely, if ever, should you have to give it up for prosecution or defense.” Case. As a victim in this case, Mr. Henley once again fell victim to this unfair outcome. He will enforce all his rights in the civil courts.”
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Henley's new attorney, Dan Petrocelli, told Fox News Digital in a statement: “Mr. Henley has once again been the victim of this unfair outcome. He will enforce all his rights in the civil courts.” (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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Rare book experts Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski were accused of plotting to sell around 100 pages of “developmental lyrics to the Eagles song 'Hotel California,'” according to the original indictment filed by New York prosecutors in 2022 .
According to the district attorney, the manuscripts have a total value of over $1 million.
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Prosecutors alleged the three men spread false stories about ownership of the manuscripts in order to sell them.
Defense attorneys argued that the men obtained the drafts legally from an author who worked with Henley decades ago on an Eagles biography that was never published after Henley gave it to him. Kosinski, Inciardi and Horowitz pleaded not guilty.
The three men accused (LR) Craig Inciardi, Edward Kosinski and Glenn Horowitz during an earlier court hearing. (Mary Atlaffer)
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According to the indictment, the defendants acquired the pages through Ed Sanders, a nonfiction author who was working on a biography of the band that was never published. Sanders reportedly kept the handwritten work and later sold the pages to Horowitz, a rare book dealer, for $50,000.
According to the AP, Scott Edelman, an attorney for Kosinski, said they were “exploring next steps,” adding, “The district attorney in this case was blinded by the fame and fortune of a celebrity, and that blinded him to the information.” that were not given to them.
After the lawsuit was dismissed, the AP reported that Incardi said in a written statement, “The next step is to restore our reputation.”
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Last week, Henley testified that the handwritten pages were always his.
The Eagles' current roster includes Timothy Schmitt, Vince Gill, Don Henley and Joe Walsh. Henley testified last week that the handwritten pages were always his property. (eagles.com)
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“I always knew that these texts were my property. I never gifted them or gave them to anyone to keep or sell,” Henley said in court.
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Irving Azoff, the Eagles' longtime manager, also recently testified that the handwritten lyric pages of “Hotel California” were originally “stolen” by Sanders.
“All of these lyrics are very personal to him, they are part of music history, and it was simply unacceptable to him that they would be stolen by someone else,” Azoff testified. He admitted that he had never seen Henley reveal any of his work, including most of the lyrics he co-wrote with Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey.
Brie Stimson of Fox News Digital and The Associated Press contributed to this report.