Rogelio Nores’ lawyer has said he is ‘very happy’ after manslaughter charges were sensationally dropped against the US businessman over the death of his friend Liam Payne.
Appeal court judges also left the two hotel workers accused of the same crime in the clear by reversing an earlier decision to charge them following the singer’s drink and drug-fuelled October 16 third-floor balcony plunge.
The pair accused of selling the former One Direction star cocaine before his fall from the CasaSur Palermo Hotel will remain in prison after being told they still face prosecution and probable trial.
Nores’ new lawyer Rafael Cuneo Libarona had centred his fight to get his client off his manslaughter rap on a rebuttal of prosecution claims he was Liam’s representative and had failed in his duty of care towards him.
He said overnight after news of the appeal ruling emerged: ‘We are happy to have reversed the decision by 360 degrees.
‘We have always maintained that Rogelio Nores was not responsible for Liam Payne’s death. He was only his friend and had no duty or legal obligation to ensure his safety.’
The three appeal court judges announced their ruling in a written document published eight days after a hearing at Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Court in Buenos Aires.
Mr Cuneo Libarona, the brother of Argentina’s Justice Minister Mariano Cuneo Libarona, had argued in the run-up to the hearing as he attempted to overturn lower court judge Laura Bruniard’s December 27 decision to indict five men including Mr Nores: ‘My client is not a manager, he is not a nurse, he is not a psychologist, nor a psychiatrist, nor is he dedicated to the recovery of addicts. He is a simple friend in Argentina who helps him in his business affairs.’
The other two men now in the clear are Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist at CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires who made a 911 call moments before Liam died, and its head of security Gilda Martin.
Grassi was one of the three men identified alongside Martin in the last harrowing photo of the former One Direction singer to emerge showing him being carried back up to his room from his hotel lobby shortly before his balcony plunge.
Like Nores, they would have faced between one and five years in prison if convicted as charged although they had been told they could be eligible for suspended jail sentences.
Waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, 24, and 21-year-old suspended hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, lost their attempts to overturn Judge Bruniard’s decision to charge them with supplying Liam drugs and remand them in prison.
They have been warned they could face prison sentences of between four and 15 years if convicted.
Prosecutors can appeal the higher court decision on Mr Nores and the two hotel workers but they have not yet indicated if they will do so.
Local reports say a number of electronic devices have yet to be opened and analysed, including Mr Nores’ iPhone and Liam Payne’s computer.
Nores’ alleged managerial role towards Liam, a position he had denied holding, had been key to the decision to prosecute the businessman.
Judge Bruniard in an indictment ruling at the end of December accused Mr Nores, banned from leaving Argentina following his indictment, of ‘failing in his duty of care, assistance and help’ towards the singer.
She alleged he ‘abandoned him to his fate, knowing he couldn’t fend for himself, aware he suffered multiple additions to alcohol and cocaine and fully conscious of the state of intoxication, vulnerably and defenceless he was in.’
It subsequently emerged the businessman had been described as Liam’s manager in an internal hotel email after he visited CasaSur Palermo Hotel and was shown a first-floor room he ‘liked a lot’ before the singer ended up checking into the third-floor suite.
The word ‘Manager’ was written along the name Roger Nores towards the end of an October 11 email and the words assistant manager against the name below Roger’s – that of Lulu Miranda who has been referred to in prior reports about the Liam Payne investigation as a pop star and a friend of Mr Nores.
She was born in Los Angeles to an Argentinian diplomat father and a Brazilian mother who has lived in Buenos Aires since she was a teenager. She was not among the five people charged.
Argentinian prosecutors referred to Liam’s friend in a lengthy statement they released on December 30 as the ‘victim’s representative’ although they identified him only by his initials R.L.N.
Mr Nores told a TMZ documentary aired in December examining the life and death of Liam Payne that he was ‘in good spirits and perfectly balanced’ the day he died as he refuted claims the singer was acting erratically and was intoxicated shortly before his fatal fall.
The businessman had previously protested his innocence and refuted claims he was Liam’s ‘de facto’ manager which is seen as a key aspect to the prosecution decision.
He said in a statement shortly after it emerged he was being officially investigated before being charged: ‘I never abandoned Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.
‘There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left.
‘I could have never imagined something like this would happen.
‘I’ve given my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and I haven’t spoken to any police officer or prosecutor ever since.
‘I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.’
Nores also insisted in a written statement he presented to the courts that he ‘wasn’t Liam’s doctor, lawyer, representative or therapeutic companion’ and their relationship was based solely around friendship.
In deciding to indict hotel chiefs Grassi and Martin, Laura Bruniard had pointed the finger at them over their decision to move Liam from the lobby to his third-floor room when he couldn’t stand on his feet because of his prior drink and drug binge. She said it ‘created a legally unacceptable risk to his life’ which had ‘foreseeable’ consequences.
Ezequiel Pereyra handed himself in on January 6 after making himself a fugitive the previous week following failed police attempts to locate and arrest him so he could be remanded in pre-trial custody on the orders of the investigating judge.
Paiz was arrested on January 3 so he could be remanded in prison.
His lawyer Fernando Madeo had previously claimed it was ‘impossible’ the charges against his client would stick following Liam’s hotel death.
He also insisted the 24-year-old was the victim of a ‘witch hunt’ sparked by the authorities’ desire for culprits.
Waiter Paiz, who met Liam at a restaurant in the upmarket Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Puerto Madero where he had gone to eat with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and friends, has confessed to consuming drugs with the singer at the hotel where he died but refuted claims he sold him any narcotics.
Public prosecutors confirmed on December 30 Judge Bruniard had accused Pereyra of ‘selling Liam cocaine on October 15 at 3.25am and between 3.30pm and 4pm on October 16 so that he could consume it during his hotel stay.’
They also claimed witness statements and CCTV analysis supported the allegation Pereyra had received US dollars 100 from Liam to buy narcotics for him and the singer had sent a car to his home on another occasion to pick up more drugs.
In November TMZ published footage showing Liam stepping out of a lift at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel and chatting with a man it identified as Pereyra shortly before the singer died, claiming the 31-year-old Brit had asked him for ‘seven grams of the same drug he had handed him earlier.’
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