Eagles co-founder and singer Don Henley has filed a civil lawsuit in Manhattan seeking the return of his handwritten notes and song lyrics from the band’s iconic album "Hotel California."
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, follows the March decision by prosecutors to drop criminal charges against three collectibles experts accused of attempting to sell the documents. Henley alleges that these experts unlawfully possessed and attempted to profit from approximately 100 pages of his personal lyric sheets, which he claims were stolen.
Daniel Petrocelli, Henley’s lawyer, emphasized in a statement that these lyric sheets belong solely to Henley and his family, asserting that Henley never authorized their sale or distribution for profit.
The handwritten pages currently remain in the custody of the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.
Lawyers representing Edward Kosinski and Craig Inciardi, two of the accused collectibles experts, criticized Henley's lawsuit as groundless. They argued that the criminal case was dismissed after it was revealed that Henley had not disclosed crucial information to prosecutors, suggesting that the singer misled the legal proceedings.
Shawn Crowley, representing Kosinski, accused Henley of attempting to rewrite history and expressed readiness to contest the lawsuit to hold Henley accountable for what he described as misinformation and misuse of the justice system.
Similarly, Stacey Richman, Inciardi’s lawyer, characterized the lawsuit as an attempt to intimidate and perpetuate a false narrative.
The legal dispute centers on the claim that Henley had previously given the lyric pages to a writer involved in an Eagles biography project, who later sold them to Glenn Horowitz. Horowitz subsequently sold the pages to Inciardi and Kosinski, who began auctioning some of them starting in 2012.
The criminal trial was halted abruptly when prosecutors acknowledged being blindsided by significant amounts of previously undisclosed communications between Henley and his legal team. This led to concerns that attorney-client privilege had been improperly used to withhold information that could affect the case’s outcome.
Judge Curtis Farber, overseeing the trial, criticized the handling of information by witnesses and their attorneys, suggesting manipulation of legal processes by Henley’s side.
The lawsuit now sets the stage for a legal battle over ownership and the handling of these historic documents related to one of rock music’s most iconic albums.
