Don Henley and Eagles manager Irving Azoff have been sued for millions by one of the men charged in a now-dismissed stolen lyrics case.
Glenn Horowitz, a rare-book dealer, says they knew the handwritten sheets were legally obtained but caused irreparable damage by going forward with the trial anyway. “Glenn is looking forward to his day in court,” attorney Caitlin Robin told The Independent. “He already cleared his name when the charges against him were dismissed but it’s time to hold those responsible who were involved in his malicious prosecution.”
Henley said he’d been trying to buy back a collection of about 100 pages of handwritten lyrics from the Hotel California era, while others were offered for auction. He eventually went to the authorities claiming to be the victim of “extortion.”
Horowitz was charged with conspiring to possess stolen property along with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and memorabilia auctioneer Edward Kosinski. Prosecutors said the trio knew the documents were taken from Henley’s home by Ed Sanders, a journalist hired to write a never-published Eagles biography.
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Along the way, new information about a scandalous teen sex worker overdose at Henley’s house was also revealed. “I wanted to escape the depression I was in” following the Eagles breakup in 1980, Henley said, “so I made a mistake.”
Then, in a stunning about-face, the proceedings were halted after new evidence cast doubt on the charges. Robin says emails between Henley, Azoff and their attorneys proved they were aware that Sanders had legally obtained the lyric sheets. Yet they “purposefully withheld any disclosure thereof because they knew it would exculpate plaintiff Glenn Horowitz and essentially destroy the fraudulent allegations they made about him.”
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In dismissing the original case, the judge agreed. Henley, Azoff and their attorneys were chastised from the bench for attempting to “obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging to their position that the lyric sheets were stolen.” Now, Horowitz is seeking millions in damages.
A new lawsuit claims Horowitz “was deprived of his liberty and suffered humiliation, defamation, media harassment, diminished reputation, loss of business and/or loss of wages amounting in more than ten million dollars ($10,000,000.00), in addition to mental anguish, indignity, frustration and financial loss.” Horowitz’s wife is listed as a co-plaintiff, and the suit says she also “suffered humiliation, defamation, media harassment, diminished reputation, and mental and emotional anguish.”
Dan Petrocelli, attorney for Henley and Azoff, still argues that Henley was the victim. “The indictment highlighted the dark underbelly of the memorabilia business that exploited the brazen, unauthorized taking and selling of Mr. Henley’s handwritten lyrics,” Petrocelli said in an official statement. “The only malicious prosecution involved here is the filing of this case by Mr. Horowitz.”
Henley has also filed his own civil suit in an attempt to regain possession of the original lyric sheets, which remain in the custody of the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
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