FORGOTTEN BAG LEADS TO ARREST OF ROCK STAR

David Crosby, the veteran rock musician who has long spoken of
overcoming the drug abuse that led to his imprisonment and liver
transplant, was arrested early yesterday in a Times Square hotel after
an employee found marijuana, a loaded pistol and two knives in his
bag, the police said.

Mr. Crosby and the band he is currently touring with, CPR, had
performed at the B. B. King Blues Club and Grill on 42nd Street on
Thursday night, and in Wayne, N.J., on Friday night. He had checked
out of his room at the DoubleTree Suites Hotel on Broadway, but left
behind a suitcase, and an employee searching it for identification
found about an ounce of marijuana, rolling papers, a hunting knife, a
folding knife and a .45-caliber handgun, the police said.

Mr. Crosby, 62, was arrested at 1 a.m. yesterday when he returned to
pick up the bag. He spent the next 12 hours in a cell in Lower
Manhattan, appearing in court shortly before 1 p.m., his long white
hair falling over a white T-shirt that said, "A man in his truck is a
beautiful thing." He did not speak. Justice Robert H. Straus of State
Supreme Court assigned a $3,500 bail and ordered Mr. Crosby to return
to court May 19. Mr. Crosby posted the bail and left the courthouse
without comment, as did his lawyer, Daniel Parker.

He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the third
degree, a felony, and three lesser charges: two administrative code
violations for possessing a knife with a blade longer than four inches
and possession of ammunition, described as about 26 bullets; and
unlawful possession of marijuana, which falls below a misdemeanor in
its severity.

It was unclear yesterday what impact the arrest would have on his
band's tour. CPR was scheduled to appear last night in Glenside, Pa.,
tonight in Annapolis, Md., and later this week in Pennsylvania,
Maryland, New York and New Jersey.

In 1985, Mr. Crosby was jailed for a year in Texas for cocaine and gun
possession. At the time, he had a $1,000-a-day cocaine and heroin
habit, he has said, and has publicly thanked the judge who sentenced
him.

"I wrote him a letter," Mr. Crosby recalled in an interview last June.
"I wrote him a letter saying, 'Listen, you know, I thought you were a
bad guy, but the truth is you - you did your job really well and I'd
like you to know that I'm one of those rare successes that you wish
you had more of.' "

Dave Zimmer, a biographer of the band and author of "4 Way Street: The
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Reader," said yesterday that he saw Mr. Crosby
backstage at B. B. King's on Thursday. "He was clear and funny and happy
and healthy. It really comes as a complete surprise that this arrest
occurred," Mr. Zimmer said. "Why he had a gun with him in this case is hard
to imagine."

In 1994, Mr. Crosby was diagnosed with hepatitis C and became gravely
ill until he received a liver transplant in November of that year.

In the interview last June, Mr. Crosby spoke in favor of legalizing
marijuana. "They're wasting billions of dollars millions of man-hours
of effort, from well-intentioned people," he said, "going after
something they shouldn't be and putting people in prison for something
they shouldn't be."