By Jennifer Peltz -
The Associated Press
Don Henley was questioned Monday in a New York court about a sordid episode from his past: his arrest in 1980 after authorities said they had found drugs and a naked 16-year-old girl who had overdosed in the home of the co-founder of the band The Eagles, in Los Angeles.
Henley was testifying in an unrelated trial, in which three collectibles dealers are accused of conspiring to
take handwritten drafts
of the song
Hotel California
and other hits by the band with the intention of selling them without having the right to it.
The men have pleaded not guilty.
A prosecutor soon asked about the arrest of the group's singer and drummer in November 1980, apparently to get ahead of the defense lawyers.
They previously indicated that they planned to question the 76-year-old singer about his memories of that time and his lifestyle at the time.
Don Henley, a member of the band The Eagles, leaves the New York Supreme Court on February 26, 2024. Associated Press
The arrest was briefly reported at the time, and only got a passing mention during the recent #MeToo movement, when many such incidents involving public figures were re-examined.
This Monday, Henley testified in court that
he called a sex worker
that night because he "wanted to escape the depression I was in" due to the band's breakup.
"I wanted to forget about everything that was happening with the band, and I made a bad decision that I regret to this day. I've had to live with it for 44 years. I still live with it today, in this courtroom "It was a bad decision," Henley said hoarsely.
[The British Royal Mint will dedicate one of its pieces in tribute to George Michael]
As he did in 1991 in an interview with
GQ
magazine , Henley stated that he did not know the girl's age until after his arrest and that he had gone to bed with her, but that they never had sexual relations.
"I don't remember the anatomical details, but I know there was no sex," Henley said, adding that they had used cocaine together and talked for many hours about the breakup of her band and her estrangement from her family.
He indicated that he called the firefighters, who checked the girl's health, found her fine and left, under his promise that he would take care of her.
The paramedics, who
found her naked
, called the police, authorities said at the time.
[Tijuana artists paint the border wall again]
Henley declared this Monday that the young woman had recovered and was preparing to leave with a friend whom she had asked to call, when the police arrived hours later.
On that occasion, authorities indicated that they had found cocaine, sedatives and marijuana in his home in Los Angeles.
The members of the band The Eagles: from left
to right
Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh, in Park City, Utah, on January 19, 2013. Associated Press
Henley pleaded not guilty in 1981 to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
He was sentenced to probation and fined $2,500
, and requested to participate in a drug education program to have some drug possession charges dropped.
Henley was questioned about the incident Monday, before the artist gave the court his account of how handwritten pages of songs from the band's hit 1976 album made their way from his home in Southern California to auctions in New York. York decades later.