A malicious prosecution lawsuit in opposition to Don Henley and longtime Eagles supervisor Irving Azoff has been dismissed. Uncommon ebook vendor Glenn Horowitz sued for tens of millions in February after being introduced up on costs for attempting to promote allegedly stolen lyrics from 1976’s Lodge California.
Horowitz claimed Henley and Azoff had manipulated New York prosecutors into charging him and two different males – former Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock auctioneer Edward Kosinski — regardless that they had been harmless. The case was abruptly thrown out throughout trial final yr after Henley failed to provide proof that confirmed whether or not the lyrics had been stolen within the first place.
The New York County Supreme Courtroom decide presiding over Horowitz’s subsequent civil courtroom continuing made a transparent distinction about that stunning flip of occasions: The sooner “dismissal was based mostly upon the shortcoming of Mr. Horowitz’s protection to be introduced with sure info,” Justice Kathleen Waterman-Marshall mentioned, “however there is not any discovering that that info was withheld by Mr. Henley or any of the defendants for an improper objective.”
How Did the Eagles Lyrics Initially Go Lacking?
The handwritten notes had initially been within the possession of journalist Ed Sanders, whose proposed ’70s-era Eagles ebook went unpublished. He mentioned Henley gave them to him. Sanders then allegedly bought the papers to Horowitz, who then reportedly bought them to Inciardi and Kosinski.
Henley complained when he discovered the lyrics in public sale listings and the trio was indicted in 2022. Henley and Azoff each argued that the felony case that adopted had benefit and was merely dismissed on a technicality. Justice Waterman-Marshall agreed.
“There was ample possible trigger for the DA to carry a case in opposition to Mr. Horowitz. Certainly, a grand jury indicted Mr. Horowitz based mostly upon the DA’s impartial and years-long investigation,” Waterman-Marshall wrote. “The dismissal of the case at trial after complainant Henley produced paperwork — none of which had been discovered to exculpate Mr. Horowitz — didn’t end result from any dangerous religion conduct on the a part of the defendants and, thus, doesn’t change this end result.”
Don Henley throughout a classic-era Eagles live performance. (Redferns, Getty Photographs)
Will the Determination within the Eagles Lawsuit Be Appealed?
Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinski had been accused of conspiring to promote practically 100 pages of allegedly stolen Eagles lyrics and Henley’s handwritten notes, which had been collectively valued at greater than $1 million. Henley testified 3 times in February 2024 in a Manhattan courtroom, revealing that he purchased again a few of the pages in 2012 however declined to take action when extra pages surfaced in 2014 and 2016.
“I would already been extorted as soon as,” Henley mentioned in the course of the first day of testimony. “I wasn’t going to do it once more.”
READ MORE: Rating All 22 Don Henley Eagles Songs From the ‘70s
The three defendants had every been charged with one depend of conspiracy within the fourth diploma, which carried a most sentence of 4 years in jail. Horowitz was individually accused of first-degree tried felony possession of stolen property, in addition to two counts of hindering prosecution. Inciardi and Kosinski had been charged with first-degree counts of felony possession, as effectively.
Horowitz’s lawyer says they may enchantment Waterman-Marshall’s determination. (He nonetheless has a pending malicious prosecution lawsuit shifting ahead in opposition to the town of New York.) In the meantime, Henley’s legal professional Dan Petrocelli instructed Billboard that “the one malicious prosecution was Horowitz’s personal lawsuit, which the courtroom promptly and rightly dismissed.”
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