Charges aganst Terry Howard dropped

[Phil O'Keefe]

Read about it right here.

 

IMO, this is a victory for engineers everywhere, and justice was served.

[toddlans]

would've read it if you didn't have to sign up for it. what was the deal anyway? did he have copies of masters or unreleased ones or what was it "suppodedly" i remember seeing a headline about that at some point but i don't remember what the deal was. either way having a copy of something you recorded for somebody can hardly be called stealing. breaking in somewhere and stealing something that you never had to begin with is a different story. i mean seriously if the record company was bitching that he had his own copies of music that Ray played and Terry recorded and the record company was making money off of doing nothing but fronting money, there is very little logic here. i don't know though like i said i only remember vaguely hearing about it.

[Spencer Crewe]

Excellent! That's great news Phil!

 

Cheers!

Spencer

[ArrMatey]

can someone fill me in on the details of this please?

[rhythminmind]

LA judge dismisses case against Ray Charles sound engineer

 

Associated Press

 

LOS ANGELES - A judge Thursday dismissed the criminal case against an award-winning sound engineer who was accused of stealing master recordings of the late Ray Charles valued at $8 million, officials said.

 

Superior Court Judge Samuel Mayerson ruled during a preliminary hearing that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a trial against Terry Howard, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. Howard had been charged with grand theft by embezzlement and receiving stolen property.

 

Howard, 48, worked with Charles for two decades and won three Grammys for his work on Charles' last album, "Genius Loves Company."

 

Howard had the right to work on Charles' recording at his own home studio and no one ever asked him to return anything, said defense attorney Steven Cron.

 

"There was no showing that he ever intended to profit by selling anything belonging to Ray Charles," Cron said. "He had worked on these materials and because he wasn't very organized at the time, failed to return them."

 

Howard has had a contentious relationship with Joe Adams, head of Ray Charles Enterprises, and the police were called when it was learned after Charles' death that tapes were missing, Cron said.

 

"No one ever called or wrote Terry Howard and said, 'We think you might have some tapes that belong to Ray Charles,'" Cron said. "They just went to police and two days later they served a search warrant and it all went out of control."

 

Prosecutors will review whether or not they will refile charges against Howard, Robison said.

 

Howard no longer works for Ray Charles Enterprises and is freelancing, Cron said. Howard previously has worked with singers Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones and the group Fleetwood Mac.

 

Charles died in June 2004 at his Beverly Hills home of acute liver disease at age 73. His life was chronicled last year in the biopic "Ray," which lead to a best actor Oscar for Jamie Foxx.