Don Henley Completes Testimony in Stolen Eagles Lyrics Trial

Don Henley made a 3rd and closing look in a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday, testifying in a felony case involving almost 100 pages of allegedly stolen Eagles lyrics from the Resort California period.

Uncommon books collector Glenn Horowitz, former Roll & Roll Corridor of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock auctioneer Edward Kosinki have been charged with one depend every of conspiracy within the fourth diploma, which carries a most sentence of 4 years in jail. Horowitz has been individually charged with first-degree tried felony possession of stolen property, in addition to two counts of hindering prosecution. Inciardi and Kosinski are additionally charged with first-degree counts of felony possession.

Henley first grew to become conscious that lyric pages had been showing on public sale web sites in 2012. He purchased again pages for $8,500, however Henley selected to not transfer ahead with purchases when extra surfaced in 2014 and 2016. “I would already been extorted as soon as,” he stated throughout his first day of testimony on Monday. “I wasn’t going to do it once more.”

READ MORE: Eagles Trial Reveals New Don Henley Teen Overdose Particulars

The entire paperwork may apparently be traced again to Ed Sanders, who was tasked with writing a e book concerning the Eagles within the late ’70s and early ’80s. Sanders reportedly bought 5 authorized pads of lyrics to Horowitz for $50,000, who in flip bought them to Inciardi and Kosinski for $65,000. Police reviews had been filed in 2012, 2014 and 2016, together with demand letters for the pages to be returned.

Henley answered questions from the defendants’ three attorneys on Monday and Tuesday, with the first concentrate on his conversations with Sanders. Henley maintained that he granted Sanders entry to numerous supplies on the time, together with the aforementioned lyric pages, however didn’t give Sanders permission to maintain the supplies or promote them. He stated this perception was primarily based on a 1979 contract between the Eagles and Sanders that allowed Sanders to buy the e book manuscript to publishers but additionally stipulated that the content material remained the property of the band.

The protection has offered proof indicating that Henley willingly despatched Sanders materials at his residence in Woodstock, New York, and that neither he nor anybody else within the Eagles camp requested for his or her return. (Henley acknowledged that he couldn’t recall whether or not or not this was the case.) In addition they asserted that the 1979 contract was by no means talked about when the difficulty of the pages arose in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

Henley was requested quite a few questions on his relationship with medicine within the ’70s, in addition to his conviction following a teen escort’s overdose at his residence in 1980, calling the latter subject “a sideshow.”

He stated “intercourse, medicine and rock ‘n’ roll just isn’t regulatory,” including: “I used to be all the time lucid after I did enterprise.”

Throughout cross-examination by Assistant District Lawyer Aaron Ginandes on Wednesday, Henley was requested whether or not he wanted to assessment paperwork in 2012, 2014 or 2016 to find out if the pages had been stolen from him. Henley stated he didn’t “as a result of I all the time knew these had been my property.” Ginandes emphasised that the pages all the time legally belonged to Henley no matter the place they had been bodily situated through the years.

Henley was additionally requested by Horowitz’s lawyer Jonathan Bach if the 1979 contract included a timeline for the return of the supplies. Henley confirmed that it didn’t, however that he had a “widespread sense understanding that he would return the supplies as soon as he was executed with them.”

One among Henley’s attorneys, Thomas Jirgal, was known as as a witness on Wednesday to debate interactions with Sotheby’s after they listed the lyric pages for public sale in 2016. He testified that he didn’t present a replica of the 1979 contract to Sotheby’s at the moment, and that he couldn’t recall when a replica of the settlement was discovered. Jirgal added that Sotheby’s didn’t ask for proof proving that Henley was the rightful proprietor, noting that he would have offered that if requested.

It is unclear how lengthy the trial will final. Henley is scheduled to renew touring with the Eagles on March 1 in Hollywood, Florida.