Eagles’ Don Henley questioned in court about time a naked 16-year-old girl overdosed at his home

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Don Henley confronted questions in a New York courtroom on Monday about an disagreeable incident from his previous: his 1980 arrest after a naked 16-year-old girl suffered an overdose at the Eagles co-founder’s Los Angeles home.

Henley was testifying at an unrelated legal trial. Three collectibles sellers are charged with conspiring to promote handwritten draft lyrics to “Hotel California” and different Eagles hits with out the authorized proper to take action.

The three males have all pleaded not responsible.

Early on in the trial, a prosecutor requested about the singer and drummer’s November 1980 arrest. The transfer was apparently a bid to get forward of defence attorneys, who had indicated that they supposed to query the 76-year-old about his reminiscence of the period and his life-style at the time.

On Monday, Henley instructed the court that the girl was a intercourse employee he had referred to as that evening as a result of he “wanted to escape the depression I was in” over the breakup of the high-flying band.

“I wanted to forget about everything that was happening with the band, and I made a poor decision which I regret to this day. I’ve had to live with it for 44 years. I’m still living with it today, in this courtroom. Poor decision,” Henley testified.

As he has maintained in earlier interviews, Henley testified that he didn’t know the girl’s age till after his arrest and that he went to mattress with the girl however by no means had intercourse along with her.

“I don’t remember the anatomical details, but I know there was no sex,” stated Henley, who stated they’d performed cocaine collectively and talked for a lot of hours about his band’s breakup and her estrangement from her household.

He stated he referred to as firefighters when she confirmed indicators of an overdose. They checked the girl’s well being, discovered her to be OK and left, with him promising to handle her. The paramedics, who discovered her in the nude, referred to as police, authorities stated at the time.

Henley stated on Monday that she recovered and was making ready to depart with a pal she’d had him name when police arrived hours later.

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At the time, authorities stated they discovered cocaine, quaaludes and marijuana at his home in Los Angeles.

Henley pleaded no contest in 1981 to a misdemeanour cost of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was sentenced to probation and a $2,500 tremendous, and he requested a drug training program to get some possession expenses dismissed.

Henley was requested about the incident on Monday earlier than he gave the court his model of how handwritten pages from the event of the band’s blockbuster 1976 album made their manner from his Southern California barn to New York auctions many years later.

Additional reporting by Associated Press