DA ‘checks out’ of ‘Hotel California’ lyrics case mid-trial after rocker Don Henley discloses 6,000 pages of new evidence late
The criminal case against three men accused of a scheme involving allegedly stolen lyrics to The Eagles’ iconic hit “Hotel California” imploded mid-trial Wednesday after the band’s frontman Don Henley disclosed new evidence that cast doubt on the prosecution.In a stunning turn of events, Justice Curtis Farber dropped the charges faced by rare-books dealer Glenn Horowitz, ex-Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and memorabilia seller Edward Kosinki — finding that Henley “manipulated” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office by failing to turn over 6,000 pages of key evidence until midway through the trial.Henley and his lawyers tried to weaponize their attorney-client privilege to “hide information that they believed would be damaging,” Farber said at a hearing Wednesday morning in Manhattan Supreme Court.The judge signed off on Manhattan prosecutors’ bid to toss the charges in light of the new evidence, which a courthouse source told The Post included emails from Henley that cast doubt on his claim that the handwritten lyrics to “Hotel California” and other valuable merchandise had been stolen.“We are checking out and leaving the courtroom,” said Stacey Richman, Craig Inciardi’s lawyer, on Wednesday — in a reference to the song’s famous line “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”The new evidence surfaced after Henley and Irving Azoff, the Eagles’ longtime manager, repeatedly cited — against prosecutors’ “express and repeated requests” — their “privilege” to keep communications with their lawyers secret while taking the stand as witnesses at the trial, the DA’s office said.But the pair “waived” that privilege in the last few days, leading to “the belated production of