Three Men Accused Of Stealing Eagles Lyrics Says Case Is “non-existent”

Last July, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Craig Inciardi, Glenn Horowitz and Edward Kosinski was sued for illegally stealing and trying to trade over 100 pages of notes that included words for Eagles tracks “Hotel California” and “Life in the Fast Lane.”

These three men were accused of stealing and attempting to sell Eagles lyrics handwritten by Don Henley. If proven guilty, they could carry prison sentences of more than four years. However, the case was recently described as a “non-existent” in a new legal filing.

Notes were said to be stolen during sometime in the 70s by an author, then tried to sell them to Horowitz in 2005 before trying to send it in an auction house in 2016. Together with Inciardi and Kosinski, these three were caught by the New York D.A.’s office, and were charged six years later.

More recently, the lawyer by the name of Antonia Apps, filed and cited four reasons why the proceedings should be ended. Firstly the lawyer argued, the statute of limitations had expired in May 2021. Second, unreasonable delay in filing charges after the papers had been seized remained unanswered. Third, the official valuation of the papers at $1 million was wrong and called improper.

Lastly, a “legal insufficiency” existed in that Kosinski had been unaware that the papers were stolen. “If the people think that Mr. Sanders is not a thief, the Court should dismiss the Indictment in its entirety, because the gravamen of the crime of criminal possession of stolen property is that the property being possessed was in fact stolen,” referring to the previously unidentified biographer, Ed Sanders.

In any case, Henley’s failure to file an action to recover the property by 2015, three years after the alleged theft, made the Eagles’ rights to the lyrics were non-existent at that point.

Meanwhile, another hearing is set to take place at the New York Supreme Court in October.