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Don Henley took the stand in a Manhattan courtroom this week to testify in a case in opposition to three memorabilia sellers who’re charged with conspiring to own and promote handwritten lyrics to “Lodge California” and different Eagles songs that had been allegedly stolen many years in the past.
Within the case, prosecutors are arguing that creator Ed Sanders, who was contracted to jot down a never-published biography of the band within the Nineteen Seventies, offered roughly 100 pages of fabric handwritten by Henley on authorized pads to a uncommon ebook supplier named Glenn Horowitz in 2005. Horowitz then offered the paperwork to Rock & Roll Corridor Of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and collectibles supplier Edward Kosinski, who supplied among the pages up for public sale in 2012. Sanders isn’t being charged within the go well with, although Horowitz, Inciardi, and Kosinski are.
Henley’s attorneys declare that the Eagles singer had them saved inside a barn on his farmland in Malibu, and that they had been stolen by Sanders within the means of writing his ebook. When initially promoting the papers, Sanders allegedly advised Horowitz numerous completely different tales as to their provenance, together with that he was mailed no matter papers he needed from Henley’s house by an assistant to the musician. Legal professionals for the three defendants say that they can’t be convicted if it can’t be confirmed that the papers had been in truth stolen.
Henley was questioned on Monday and Tuesday about his previous drug use and his reminiscences of the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s in an try and argue that he may not bear in mind giving the handwritten lyrics to Sanders. He mentioned that he was not a “drug-filled zombie” when requested about his cocaine utilization. “If I used to be some type of a drug-filled zombie, I couldn’t have achieved every part I achieved earlier than 1980 and after 1980,” he mentioned.
In an effort to stave off a possible line of questioning from the protection, prosecutors requested Henley about his arrest in 1980, which occurred shortly after the Eagles broke up, when authorities discovered a unadorned 16-year-old lady who had overdosed on medication in his Los Angeles house. On the time, Henley pleaded no contest to a cost of contributing to the delinquency of a minor; he accomplished probation and paid a $2,500.
In court docket, Henley mentioned that he had employed a intercourse employee to “escape the despair [he] was in” as a result of band’s break-up, and that he didn’t know her age till after the arrest. He maintained that they didn’t have intercourse, which he has mentioned in previous interviews. “I needed to neglect about every part that was taking place with the band, and I made a poor resolution which I remorse to today,” he advised the court docket. “I’ve needed to stay with it for 44 years. I’m nonetheless dwelling with it right this moment, on this courtroom. Poor resolution.”
Henley additionally mentioned his artistic course of with Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, who handed away in 2016 — his handwritten notes are additionally on the paperwork. “I imagine my property was stolen,” Henley testified, happening to say that he would by no means have voluntarily parted with the sheets. A tape of a 1980 cellphone name between Henley and Sanders was performed in court docket by which Henley mentioned that he’d “attempt to dig by way of” his lyrics, although Henley mentioned on the stand that “there is no such thing as a tape or doc wherever the place I say, ‘Mr. Sanders, you’re free to maintain these things in perpetuity, and also you’re free to promote them.’”
The defendants opted to not have a jury on this trial, which signifies that will probably be determined by the decide. The case remains to be ongoing.
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