A malicious prosecution lawsuit towards Don Henley and longtime Eagles supervisor Irving Azoff has been dismissed. Uncommon e book vendor Glenn Horowitz sued for hundreds of thousands in February after being introduced up on costs for attempting to promote allegedly stolen lyrics from 1976’s Resort 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 — though they have been harmless. The case was abruptly thrown out throughout trial final 12 months after Henley failed to supply proof that confirmed whether or not the lyrics had been stolen within the first place.
The New York County Supreme Court docket choose presiding over Horowitz’s subsequent civil courtroom continuing made a transparent distinction about that stunning flip of occasions: The sooner “dismissal was primarily based upon the shortcoming of Mr. Horowitz’s protection to be offered with sure info,” Justice Kathleen Waterman-Marshall stated, “however there is not any discovering that that info was withheld by Mr. Henley or any of the defendants for an improper function.”
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notes had initially been within the possession of journalist Ed Sanders, whose proposed ’70s-era Eagles e book went unpublished. He stated 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 prison case that adopted had advantage and was merely dismissed on a technicality. Justice Waterman-Marshall agreed.
“There was ample possible trigger for the DA to carry a case towards Mr. Horowitz. Certainly, a grand jury indicted Mr. Horowitz primarily based 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 have been discovered to exculpate Mr. Horowitz — didn’t end result from any unhealthy 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 Pictures)
Will the Choice within the Eagles Lawsuit Be Appealed?
Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinski have been accused of conspiring to promote almost 100 pages of allegedly stolen Eagles lyrics and Henley’s handwritten notes, which have been collectively valued at greater than $1 million. Henley testified thrice 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 stated throughout 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 rely of conspiracy within the fourth diploma, which carried a most sentence of 4 years in jail. Horowitz was individually accused of first-degree tried prison possession of stolen property, in addition to two counts of hindering prosecution. Inciardi and Kosinski have been charged with first-degree counts of prison possession, as properly.
Horowitz’s lawyer says they are going to attraction Waterman-Marshall’s resolution. (He nonetheless has a pending malicious prosecution lawsuit transferring ahead towards town of New York.) In the meantime, Henley’s lawyer Dan Petrocelli advised Billboard that “the one malicious prosecution was Horowitz’s personal lawsuit, which the courtroom promptly and rightly dismissed.”
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