3 charged in scheme to sell stolen ‘Hotel California’ lyrics

NEW YORK — A rock memorabilia vendor and two different males have been charged Tuesday with scheming to promote allegedly ill-gotten, handwritten lyrics to the traditional rock juggernaut “Resort California” and different hits by the Eagles.

Prosecutors mentioned the trio lied to public sale homes and patrons concerning the manuscripts’ fuzzy chain of origin, teaching the one that offered the fabric about what to say. In the meantime, the lads tried to thwart Eagles co-founder Don Henley’s efforts to reclaim the objects, in keeping with prosecutors.

“They made up tales concerning the origin of the paperwork and their proper to own them so they might flip a revenue,” Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg mentioned.

By way of their legal professionals, rock auctioneer Edward Kosinski and co-defendants Glenn Horowitz and Craig Inciardi pleaded not responsible to conspiracy costs. Kosinski and Inciardi have been additionally charged with legal possession of stolen property, and Horowitz was charged with tried legal possession of stolen property and two counts of hindering prosecution. They have been launched with out bail.

Their legal professionals insist the lads are harmless.

“The DA’s workplace alleges criminality the place none exists and unfairly tarnishes the reputations of well-respected professionals,” protection attorneys Antonia Apps, Jonathan Bach and Stacey Richman mentioned in a press release vowing to “struggle these unjustified costs vigorously.”

Apps, who represents Kosinski, later referred to as the costs “the weakest legal case I’ve seen in my total profession,” characterizing it as a “civil dispute” over possession.

“Regardless of six years of investigating the case, the DA hasn’t included a single factual allegation within the indictment exhibiting that my consumer did something mistaken,” she mentioned in a press release.

The trove of paperwork included Henley’s notes and lyrics for “Resort California” and two different singles from that eponymous, blockbuster album: “Life within the Quick Lane” and “New Child In City.” Prosecutors valued the fabric at over $1 million.

The writings are “irreplaceable items of musical historical past” and “an integral a part of the legacy Don Henley has created over the course of his 50-plus-year profession,” longtime Eagles supervisor Irving Azoff mentioned in a press release.

He thanked prosecutors for bringing a case that exposes “the reality about music memorabilia gross sales of extremely private, stolen objects hidden behind a facade of legitimacy.”

The chart-topping, Grammy-Award-winning single “Resort California” is a touchstone of Seventies rock, with one of many period’s most memorable guitar solos capping a musical story of being lured right into a glitzy, mysterious lodge the place “you’ll be able to take a look at any time you want, however you’ll be able to by no means depart.” Theories about its that means abound; Henley has mentioned it’s about extra and a darkish facet of the American dream.

The Grammy-winning album has offered greater than 26 million copies since its launch in 1976, making it among the best promoting in historical past.

In response to prosecutors and an indictment, Horowitz purchased the paperwork round 2005 from a author who labored on a never-published ebook concerning the Eagles within the late ’70s.

The author, who is not recognized within the indictment, gave a wide range of explanations to Horowitz over time of the place the paperwork got here from.

In a single e-mail included within the indictment, the author says Henley’s assistant despatched them from the musician’s Malibu, California, dwelling after the author picked them out; in one other, the author discovered them discarded in a dressing room backstage at an Eagles live performance; in one other, somebody who labored for the band gave them to him.

“It was about 35 years in the past and my reminiscence is foggy!” the author mentioned in a 2012 e-mail.

By then, Kosinski and Inciardi had purchased the paperwork from Horowitz; Kosinski had listed them on the market on his on-line public sale website and inquiries about their origins have been looming.

In subsequent emails, Horowitz and Inciardi labored to have the author’s “‘clarification’ formed right into a communication” — ultimately, an April 2012 e-mail saying that he did not keep in mind who gave him the paperwork. Kosinski despatched it to Henley’s lawyer, in keeping with the indictment.

Later that month, Kosinski offered some “Resort California” lyric sheets to Henley for $8,500, in keeping with the indictment.

Inciardi and Kosinski then tried to hawk extra of the Eagles paperwork to different potential patrons by means of Christie’s and Sotheby’s public sale homes, whereas additionally providing to promote some to Henley, in keeping with the indictment.

By 2017, with not solely Henley’s legal professionals however the district lawyer’s workplace asking questions, Horowitz requested the author whether or not he’d gotten the supplies from one other founding Eagles member, Glenn Frey, the indictment mentioned. Frey had died the 12 months earlier than.

“When you establish GF because the supply of the pill, you and I are out of this image for good,” Horowitz wrote in a follow-up e-mail.

The author then offered a observe to that impact, in keeping with the indictment.