Charges dropped over handwritten Eagles lyrics: What to know about 'Hotel California' trial
New York prosecutors have abruptly dropped their curious criminal case involving handwritten lyrics to the classic rock megahit "Hotel California" and other favorites from rock band the Eagles.
The three defendants, all well-established in the collectibles world, were accused of scheming to thwart Eagles co-founder Don Henley's efforts to reclaim the allegedly ill-gotten documents.
Prosecutors dropped the criminal charges midtrial Wednesday, with assistant Manhattan District Attorney Aaron Ginandes informing the judge at 10 a.m. that prosecutors would no longer proceed with the case, citing newly available emails that defense lawyers said raised questions about the trial's fairness. The trial had been underway since late February.
The trial concerned more than 80 pages of drafts of the words to songs from the "Hotel California" album, the 1976 release that stands today as the third-biggest selling disc ever in the U.S.
The documents included lyrics-in-development for "Life in the Fast Lane," "New Kid in Town" and, of course, "Hotel California."
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Prosecutors drop charges in The Eagles 'Hotel California' criminal case
Emails emerged only when Eagles star Don Henley apparently decided last week to waive attorney-client privilege, after he and other prosecution witnesses had already testified. The defense argued that the new disclosures raised questions that it hadn't been able to ask.
"Witnesses and their lawyers" used attorney-client privilege "to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging," Judge Curtis Farber said in dismissing the case.
Through their lawyers, the men contended that they were rightful owners of pages that weren't stolen by anyone.
"We are glad the district attorney's office finally made the right decision to drop this case. It should never have been brought," Jonathan Bach, an attorney for Horowitz, said outside court.
Henley's current lawyer, Dan Petrocelli, said in an emailed statement that the attorney-client privilege that had previously shielded some of the communications "is a foundational guardrail in our justice system" that should rarely be forsaken.
"As the victim in this case, Mr. Henley has once again been victimized by this unjust outcome," Petrocelli said. "He will pursue all his rights in the civil courts."
In a letter to the court, Ginandes, the prosecutor, said the waiver of attorney-client privilege resulted in the belated production of about 6,000 pages of material.
Who was accused of stealing 'Hotel California' lyrics documents?
Rare-book dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski were accused of stealing the handwritten lyrics and pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and various other charges. Their lawyers said the case "alleges criminality where none exists and unfairly tarnishes the reputations of well-respected professionals."
The case was first brought in 2022, a decade after some of the pages began popping up for auction and Henley took notice — and took umbrage. He bought back a bit of the material for $8,500 but also reported the documents stolen, according to court filings.
'Hotel California' trial abruptly ends after prosecutors drop case over handwritten Eagles lyrics
At the time, the lyrics sheets were in the hands of Kosinski and Inciardi, who had bought them from Horowitz. He had purchased them in 2005 from Ed Sanders, a writer and 1960s counterculture figure who worked with the Eagles on a band biography that was shelved in the early '80s.
Sanders, who also co-founded the avant-garde rock group the Fugs, wasn't charged in the case and hadn't responded to a message seeking comment about it.
Sanders told Horowitz in 2005 that Henley's assistant had mailed along any documents he wanted for the biography, though the writer worried that Henley "might conceivably be upset" if they were sold, according to emails recounted in the indictment.
"It cast significant doubt on whether Sanders actually owned Henley’s lyric notes or had the right to sell them," Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Penfold said in opening remarks.
But once Henley's lawyers began asking questions, Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinski started maneuvering to gin up and disseminate a legally viable ownership history for the manuscripts, Manhattan prosecutors said.
Why were the 'Hotel California' lyrics on trial?
According to the indictment, Inciardi and Horowitz floated evolving accounts of how Sanders obtained the documents. The explanations ranged over the next five years from Sanders finding them abandoned in a backstage dressing room to the writer getting them from Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, who died in 2016.
Emails showed some input and assent from Sanders, but he also apparently objected at least to the backstage-salvage story. In messages that didn't include him, Horowitz wrote about getting Sanders' "'explanation' shaped into a communication" and giving him "gentle handling" and assurances "that he's not going to the can," the indictment said.
The defendants' lawyers had said that Sanders had legal possession of the documents, and so did the men who bought them from him.
The defendants decided to forgo a jury trial, and Farber would have decided the verdict.
What happened to the Eagles' book about their breakup?
An unpublished Eagles biography by Sanders, detailing the band's 1980 breakup, was a central part of the trial.
A friend of Frey’s, he was hired in 1979 to write a band biography for $25,000 and enjoyed extensive access. But Irving Azoff, the Eagles' manager, testified that the co-founders disliked the resulting manuscript and that, "for me personally, all the stuff about the Eagles' breakup was unacceptable."
As the project stalled, a frustrated Sanders asked Azoff in a 1982 letter for "a substantial amount of money," saying he'd "behaved with great reserve" by not approaching a major magazine with a story about the Eagles' split.
That worried them.
"He had inside knowledge," Azoff said, and with Frey and Henley cultivating solo careers, "we didn't want some ugly story of the breakup of the Eagles to be published."
They ultimately paid Sanders about $75,000 and agreed to let him look for a publisher, comfortable that any book still would need the band's approval under his 1979 contract, Azoff said. The book never found a publisher.
What are the 'Hotel California' lyrics?
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself
"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor
I thought I heard them say
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here
Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget
So I called up the Captain
"Please bring me my wine."
He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine."
And still those voices are calling from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Bring your alibis
Mirrors on the ceiling
The pink champagne on ice
And she said "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
And in the master's chambers
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast
Last thing I remember
I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
"Relax," said the night man
"We are programmed to receive
You can check-out any time you like
But you can never leave!"
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Eagles' 'Hotel California' lyrics trial: Case dismissed, what to know
