A rock memorabilia dealer and two other men were charged Tuesday with scheming to sell allegedly ill-gotten, handwritten lyrics to the classic rock juggernaut “Hotel California” and other hits by the Eagles, the AP reports. Prosecutors said the trio lied to auction houses and buyers about the manuscripts' fuzzy chain of origin, coaching the person who provided the material about what to say. Meanwhile, the men tried to thwart Eagles co-founder Don Henley's efforts to reclaim the items, according to prosecutors. “They made up stories about the origin of the documents and their right to possess them so they could turn a profit,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. Through their lawyers, rock auctioneer Edward Kosinski and co-defendants Glenn Horowitz and Craig Inciardi pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges.
Kosinski and Inciardi were also charged with criminal possession of stolen property, and Horowitz was charged with attempted criminal possession of stolen property and two counts of hindering prosecution. They were released without bail. Their lawyers insist the men are innocent. “The DA’s office alleges criminality where none exists and unfairly tarnishes the reputations of well-respected professionals,” defense attorneys Antonia Apps, Jonathan Bach and Stacey Richman said in a statement vowing to “fight these unjustified charges vigorously." Apps, who represents Kosinski, later called the charges “the weakest criminal case I have seen in my entire career,” characterizing it as a “civil dispute” over ownership. According to prosecutors and an indictment, Horowitz bought the documents around 2005 from a writer who worked on a never-published book about the Eagles in the late ’70s.
The writer gave a variety of explanations to Horowitz over the years of where the documents came from. In one email, the writer says Henley's assistant sent them from the musician's Malibu, California, home after the writer picked them out; in another, the writer found them discarded in a dressing room backstage at an Eagles concert; in another, someone who worked for the band gave them to him. “It was about 35 years ago and my memory is foggy!” the writer said in a 2012 email. By then, Kosinski and Inciardi had bought the documents from Horowitz; Kosinski had listed them for sale on his online auction site and inquiries about their origins were looming. By 2017, with not only Henley's lawyers but the district attorney's office asking questions, Horowitz asked the writer whether he'd gotten the materials from another founding Eagles member, Glenn Frey, the indictment said. Frey had died the year before. The writer then provided a note to that effect, according to the indictment. (More Eagles stories.)
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