Theft charges dismissed in Hank Williams notebook case

NASHVILLE, Tenn. A judge threw out theft charges against a collector and a janitor accused of stealing a notebook containing 17 songs that country legend Hank Williams wrote but never recorded.
The notebook was valued at as much as 250 thousand dollars.

Judge Michael Mondelli said Thursday that there was not enough evidence to support the theft charges against Stephen M. Shutts and Francine Boykin.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing brought the charges in October.

Boykin had worked as a janitor at Sony when she said she found the notebook in a box of trash taken from the company's Music Row offices.

Boykin and her husband sold the box for 15 hundred dollars to Shutts last summer.

The box contained the Williams notebook as well as other items from Roy Orbison, Buck Owens and Conway Twitty.