This Could be Heaven or This Could be Hell

Handwritten pages inscribed with the first known iterations of legendary rock song Hotel California are at the center of an upcoming at a criminal trial.

Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski have been charged with conspiring to sell pages from the yellow lined pad, along with other Eagles lyrics, without the rights.  The three men have pleaded not guilty.  The Manhattan district attorney's office is expected to call Eagles member Don Henley as its star witness.  The non-jury trial will include more than 80 pages of draft lyrics from the 1976 Hotel California album, including famous lines from the eponymous hit like: "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinki are facing charges with conspiracy to possess stolen property and other offenses, not with stealing the documents themselves. The pages of lyrics were allegedly stolen by somebody else before the trio procured them, prosecutors said.    After the men attempted to sell some of those lyrics through Kosinski’s company, Henley caught wind of the scheme and bought them himself for $8,500. He soon got the Manhattan district attorney’s office involved, filing a stolen-goods report.  Inciardi and Kosinski continued to try to sell other pages, even listing the “Hotel California” lyrics at Sotheby’s in 2016, per the Associated Press.  The auction house later withdrew them, and police raided the men’s homes in 2019, taking 84 pages of lyrics along with 1,300 pages of paperwork and multiple electronic devices.

Prosecutors still will have to prove the documents were stolen, for the charges to stick. However, defense laywers have said the documents were not stolen.  The dispute dates back to the late 1970s, when writer Ed Sanders was working on a biography for the Eagles. The band had reportedly allowed Sanders to access their archives, which included the lyrics-filled notepads.  It is believed that he sold them to Horowitz, a rare-books dealer, for $50,000 in 2005.  Horowitz then sold the lyrics to Inciardi and Kosinski, a memorabilia company owner.  Sanders was not charged in the case.

Don Henley previously told a grand jury he never gave Sanders the lyrics, according to court filings.  Defense lawyers have suggested otherwise, casting doubt on Henley's memory.  "We believe that Mr Henley voluntarily provided the lyrics to Mr Sanders," attorney Scott Edelman said in court last week.