Amid Liam Payne death probe, singer’s friend and two hotel workers cleared of charges
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Two hotel workers and a friend of late pop star Liam Payne will no longer face charges relating to the One Direction singer’s unexpected death last year, Argentine judges decided this week.
According to a court document reviewed by The Times, appeals court judges on Wednesday decided to reverse involuntary manslaughter charges for Rogelio “Roger” Nores and CasaSur Palermo Hotel employees Gilda Agustina Martín and Esteban Reynaldo Grassi. The National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office of Argentina handed down the manslaughter charges in December, two months after the singer fell to his death.
Amid its investigation into Payne’s death, prosecutors in December described Nores as a representative for Payne and alleged that he abandoned the singer despite knowing he was “unable to fend for himself” and having previous knowledge of Payne’s struggles with addiction.
In Liam Payne’s words and interviews with friends and collaborators, the late pop star emerges as a talent struggling with addiction in the spotlight.
Payne, an “X Factor” alum, died Oct. 16, two weeks after he arrived in Buenos Aires to attend a concert. He was 31. Shortly after his death, officials determined Payne died from multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding caused by the fall. A month later, officials announced Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he fell.
The appeals court judges ruled that Nores did not have a role in Payne’s “obtaining and consuming alcohol” and that he could not have taken actions to prevent Payne’s death, according to Rolling Stone, which first reported the decision.
In Wednesday’s ruling, judges said Nores “made himself present on several occasions” at the hotel and “made arrangements” with staff “on how to contact him in case of emergencies.” They also said that although it was likely Payne would not have obtained the necessary quantity of drugs and alcohol “for the state of intoxication he exhibited when he died” had Nores stayed by his side, judges said “it cannot be ruled out” that Payne would have “managed to get a hold of the substances anyway.”
Liam Payne’s One Direction bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik joined his family Wednesday at a private funeral service.
This “is usual in addicts even if they are under the loving care” of family, the judges added. Judges also cited an August email from Nores to Payne’s team and family, in which he voiced concerns about the singer’s health and wrote that he would step “fully out of the picture.” The email is also at the center of Nores’ defamation lawsuit against Payne’s father, Geoff Payne.
“Glad this is finally over,” Nores told Rolling Stone. “I’m happy I’m now going to be able to travel to the U.K. and say goodbye to my friend.”
Nores and hotel employees Martín and Grassi were three of five people charged in relation to Payne’s death. Judges said “we find no way to conceive ... [the two employees’] conduct as a relevant and culpable cause of homicide.” The other two people allegedly involved in the singer’s demise — another hotel employee and a waiter — remain in pretrial detention. They were charged in December with allegedly supplying Payne with narcotics before his death.
Times staff writer Karen Garcia contributed to this report.
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