Eagles’ co founder Don Henley gave evidence in a criminal case involving the alleged theft of almost 100 pages of Eagles lyrics from their Hotel California album.
These documents were handwritten by Henley, worth over $1 million in value. They had been originally given to a writer named Ed Sanders in the 1970s, as part of a research for an authorised biography
Three men namely former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi, rare books collector Glenn Horowitz, and rock auctioneer Edward Kosinki, are facing a charge of one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree, which would bring a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
Glenn Horrowitz is facing another charge of first-degree attempted criminal possession of stolen property, and two counts of hindering prosecution.
Kosinski and Inciardi are also facing charges of first degree counts of criminal possession.
Stolen Property File Reported
Don Henley allegedly became aware of the theft of these documents, having purchased some of them back for $8,500 in 2012.
Last week, longtime Eagles manager Irving Azoff had testified in court that Ed Sanders had agreed a deal, allowing him to sell the book to publishers, while the contents still legally belonged to the band.
This book was never published, and Sanders had allegedly sold five legal pads of lyrics to Horrowitz for $50,000. Horrowitz then sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski for $65,000.
Having purchased some of theses documents, Don Henley then filed a police report for stolen property.
Inciardi had attempted to auction these documents via Christies, valued at $700,000.
However, when they learned of the paper’s questionable sale. Christies pulled out of the deal.
“criminal actors”
In court, Don Henley was asked about the history of the Eagles, and their formation.
However, he was then asked by District Attorney Aaron Ginandes about a previous criminal conviction, which involved a teenage sex worker.
Henley spoke about an evening where he called for a sex worker, whom he believed to be of age at the time of their meeting.
“I wanted to escape the depression I was in”, Henley said following the Eagles split in 1980. “So I made a mistake”.
While he insisted that no sexual contact happened between them, Henley did admit drug use, and the pair fell asleep.
Henley claimed that he woke up to find the girl have a seizure, which he called for medical help. He was later arrested, along with the teen escort and a teenage friend who arrived to pick up the girl from the house.
The musician was later charged, and sentenced to probation, and fined $2,500, telling the court at the stolen lyrics trial, that he regrets his actions to this day.
“I was buying my own property back”
Elsewhere, Don Henley was asked about how he came to know Ed Sanders, who had known his Eagles bandmate Glen Frey for some years prior.
He also testified that kept a lot of Eagles relate material at his property known as ‘The Barn’ in Malibu.
He also revealed that Sanders had been working on a book on the Eagles, and that he temporarily granted him access to his property.
Henley also told the court that he had contacted his legal team every time that he had discovered his lyric pages were sold on auction sites, where he learned that these sales could be traced back to Sanders.
He also added that buying his lyrics back was “a bitter pill to swallow. … I was buying my own property back”.
The Eagles co founder also refused further offers to buy lyrics in 2014 and 2016, as he had “already been extorted once” and “wasn’t going to do it again”.
Asked if he could recall granting Sanders access to the legal pads, Henley said, “I would have never allowed him to remove them from Los Angeles”.
