Three men charged over stolen lyrics for Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’

NEW YORK, July 12 (Reuters) – A few adult men have been criminally charged in Manhattan with possessing about 100 web pages stolen from the singer Don Henley of handwritten notes and lyrics for the Eagles’ blockbuster 1976 album “Lodge California.”

Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski have been accused on Tuesday of making an attempt to promote the products, worthy of a lot more than $1 million, and lying to auction homes, prospective potential buyers and law enforcement about how they acquired them.

Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg reported the products include lyrics to the tracks “Hotel California,” “Everyday living in the Speedy Lane” and “New Child In Town,” with many of the lyrics recovered by warrants.

Horowitz, 66, of Manhattan Inciardi, 58, of Brooklyn, and Kosinski, 59, of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, pleaded not responsible to conspiracy and legal possession rates, and Horowitz to hindering prosecution.

In a joint statement, their lawyers reported Bragg’s office environment “alleges criminality exactly where none exists and unfairly tarnishes the reputations of very well-highly regarded pros. We will struggle these unjustified prices vigorously. These men are innocent.”

Prosecutors said a future Eagles biographer experienced stolen the products in the late 1970s, and bought them to Horowitz, a unusual guides supplier, in 2005.

Horowitz then allegedly offered the elements to Inciardi and Kosinski, who in change attempted marketing them at Christie’s and Sotheby’s or coercing Henley into acquiring them back.

The indictment contains dozens of e-mail about the defendants’ alleged 7-1/2-calendar year plan, including Horowitz’s suggestion that he fake Eagles singer Glenn Frey experienced specified him the stolen lyrics.

Frey “is dead and figuring out him as (the) supply would make this go away as soon as and for all,” Horowitz allegedly wrote in February 2017, 13 months right after Frey’s loss of life.

In a statement, Eagles manager Irving Azoff claimed no one has a proper to financial gain from “the outright theft of irreplaceable items of musical historical past. … We glance forward to the return of Don’s assets.”

The tune “Hotel California” is recognized for summary lyrics that Henley has stated explain American excess, and a extensive guitar outro from Don Felder and Joe Walsh. It won the 1977 Grammy award for document of the yr.

In 2014, Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to “Like a Rolling Stone” fetched a record $2 million at Sotheby’s.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York modifying by Jonathan Oatis

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