NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — A criminal prosecution over the hand-written lyrics to “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits came to an abrupt halt on Wednesday after prosecutors in New York dropped the case against three collectibles experts who were accused of trying to sell stolen material.
The material in question was a collection of handwritten lyrics to hits by the legendary rock band The Eagles, including their signature song, Hotel California, which Don Henley, a founding member of the band and one of its principle songwriters, was attempting to recover from a trio of memorabilia collectors.
According to the Associated Press, prosecutors dropped the case after agreeing that defense lawyers had not received approximately 6,000 pages of communications involving Henley and his attorneys and associates.
“These delayed disclosures revealed relevant information that the defense should have had the opportunity to explore,” Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Aaron Ginandes told the court on Wednesday per the Associated Press.
According to the AP, presiding judge Curtis Farber said that the newly revealed documents showed that the prosecutors “were apparently manipulated” by unnamed witnesses and their attorneys and used attorney-client privilege “to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging.”
Henley was not named in the decision to dismiss.
“The district attorney in this case got blinded by the fame and fortune of a celebrity,” Edelman, an attorney representing defendant Edward Kosinski said outside court, “and that blinded them to the information that they weren’t being given.”
An attorney for Henley said that the rock legend may continue to pursue the return of the lyrics in a civil court.
“As the victim in this case, Mr. Henley has once again been victimized by this unjust outcome,” attorney Dan Petrocelli said in a statement provided to the Associated Press. “He will pursue all his rights in the civil courts.”
