Men Charged Over Stolen Eagles Lyrics Fire Back At ‘Baffling’ Case
In their first response, they say there's one big problem: Don Henley's handwritten notes were never actually stolen in the first place.
Two months after Manhattan prosecutors indicted three men for trying to profit from handwritten notes that were allegedly stolen from Eagles drummer and singer Don Henley, the accused are firing back – calling the charges “baffling” and arguing there’s no proof the materials were even stolen in the first place.
Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski were charged in July with conspiracy over accusations that they tried to resell and hide the origin of the allegedly stolen notes, which include material from the album Hotel California. At the time, the three vowed to “fight these unjustified charges vigorously.”
On Wednesday, they did exactly that – filing motions to dismiss the case that cited a litany of faults with the charges against them. Chief among them: That the alleged “thief,” a journalist named Ed Sanders who obtained them in the 1970s, has never been charged with a crime and says he did nothing wrong.
“Mr. Sanders had been asked by the rock group the Eagles to write their official biography,” wrote Horowitz’s lawyer Jonathan Bach. “He traveled with the band and obtained possession of voluminous materials, including handwritten drafts of Eagles’ lyrics. The Indictment nowhere alleges that Mr. Sanders stole or improperly obtained any materials.”
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Lawyers for Kosinski cited a 2019 interview between Sanders and prosecutors, in which an investigator repeatedly told the now-elderly author that he “did nothing wrong” and agreed that he had not stolen the notes.
“If the People’s view is that Mr. Sanders is not a thief, the court should dismiss the Indictment in its entirety,” wrote Kosinski’s lawyer Antonia Apps, before pointedly explaining that a crucial element of criminally possessing stolen property is that “the property being possessed was in fact stolen.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. unveiled the charges on July 12, saying the trio tried to resell the notes despite knowing they were stolen: “They made up stories about the origin of the documents and their right to possess them so they could turn a profit.”
Prosecutors said that Henley’s notes were originally taken in the late 1970s by Sanders, who then sold them to Horowitz (a rare book dealer), who in turn sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski. Henley filed a police report and demanded the return of his property when he learned that Inciardi and Kosinski were attempting to sell the manuscripts, but that the duo allegedly then responded with a “years-long campaign” to avoid giving them back.
After the pair worked to “fabricate” the origins of Henley’s notes, they allegedly tried to both sell them back to Henley and auction them off through Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses. As part of the auction process, prosecutors say the two lied about the materials and attempted to persuade Sotheby’s to do the same when dealing with prospective buyers. Eventually, authorities seized the documents in 2016, but waited until July to bring the charges against the three men.
In Wednesday’s response, Kosinski’s other main attack against the case was that six-year delay – an “unreasonable” wait that he says both exceeded the statute of limitations and violated his constitutional right to due process.
“This case was brought to the Grand Jury some six years after the DA was first aware of the core allegations,” Apps wrote in her motion. “The allegations concern conduct that took place nearly 50 years ago, and the individual who claims the property belongs to him (Mr. Henley) has known about the alleged theft of the lyrics since at least 2012, when he first brought the matter to the attention of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Office (which appears to have taken no action).
“These circumstances should have spurred the DA to action rather than drag its feet,” Apps continued. “There is unquestionably undue prejudice to the defense given the challenge of faded memories and other lost evidence, particularly since a key witness in the case is 82 years old.”
Wednesday’s filings came as three separate motions from the particular defendants, each overlapping and co-signed by their co-defendants but tailored at dismissing the specific charges against each defendant. Horowitz, for instance, made specific arguments about allegations that he made false and misleading statements about the origins of the notes. He says the case raises “serious doubts about the sufficiency of the evidence presented to the grand jury” to bring the charges. Inciardi’s filing was not immediately publicly available.
A spokesman for the Manhattan DA’s office did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.
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