New York (AFP) - Prosecutors unexpectedly dropped charges Wednesday against three antique collectors accused of handling stolen lyrics for 1970s hit "Hotel California" and other tracks by rock group the Eagles.
The trial began in New York in February with veteran frontman Don Henley as a key witness and was centered on handwritten, draft lyrics allegedly stolen from the band in the 1970s.
However, closing the case on Wednesday morning, a judge said that a new 6,000-page cache of emails -- previously not disclosed to the court -- cast doubt over the prosecution.
Judge Curtis Farber said Henley and former Eagles manager Irving Azoff had used legal privilege to "shield themselves from a thorough and complete cross-examination" during the trial.
"It is now clear that both witnesses and their lawyers (...) used the privilege to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging to their position that the lyric sheets were stolen," he said.
The three defendants, Craig Inciardi, Glenn Horowitz, and Edward Kosinski, had been charged with criminal possession of stolen goods, which they denied.
The allegations dated back to the late 1970s, when an author hired by the Eagles to write its biography was entrusted with around 100 pages of the band's notes, which he never returned.
Henley claimed this was theft, though the biographer did not face any criminal charges.
According to prosecutors, the author eventually sold the pages in 2005 to Horowitz, a rare book dealer, who in turn sold them to collectors Inciardi and Kosinski.
Henley said he became aware of the alleged theft in 2012 when he saw some of the notes being auctioned online for $8,500, which he bought as a way of "buying my property back".
Other pages surfaced at auctions over the following years, including a batch of thirteen pages handwritten for the song "Hotel California".
The Eagles are widely considered one of the most successful rock groups of all time. Their 1976 album "Hotel California", which featured the hit track of the same name, is the third-best selling album in the US.
