The five men charged after Liam Payne’s fatal third-floor Argentina hotel balcony plunge are gearing up for a key appeal date.
Their lawyers will attempt to overturn judge Laura Bruniard’s decision to formally accuse them and pave the way for a bombshell trial later this year. And the attorneys for the two suspects charged with selling the singer cocaine before his drink and drug-fuelled fall, and facing up to 15 years in prison if convicted, are expected to contest their pre-trial incarceration which took effect following their arrests earlier this month.
The appeal at Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Court in Buenos Aires is understood to have been scheduled for February 10 following the January judicial recess in the South American country. It was not immediately clear this morning if the hearing would take place in public or be held behind closed doors.
News of the key development in the case came as it emerged Liam’s friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, one of the three men charged with manslaughter, has incorporated a top lawyer into his legal team. The businessman is suing Liam’s dad for $10million for defamation in a lawsuit lodged in Palm Beach, Florida.
He claims Geoff Payne made “misleading false and defamatory claims” in sworn statements to prosecutors in Buenos Aires investigating Liam’s death which have incriminated him, including the assertion he was Liam’s nurse and was responsible for his care. Rafael Cuneo Libarona, the brother of Argentina’s Justice Minister Mariano Cuneo Libarona, has been named as Rogelio’s new lawyer and the legal expert hired by the American to reinforce his argument he was never Liam’s manager or the “guarantor” judge Bruniard described him as when she decided to charge him.
Mr Cuneo Libarona, who is believed to be working alongside Mr Nores’ Buenos Aires-based law firm Marval O’Farrell & Mairal as well as playing a key role in the separate US defamation case, told Infobae: “The lawsuit we filed in the United States is to stop an unnecessary, mendacious and dishonest attack seeking to hold my client responsible instead of exposing who really are responsible for Liam Payne’s descent into drugs at a very young age.
“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. ” Insisting Nores was not the “guarantor” the judge who charged him is categorising him as, he added: “The lawsuit we lodged in the United States is designed to put things in their place because nowadays it’s very easy to make a bad statement about someone. ”
Mr Nores’ high-profile lawyer is regarded as an expert in Argentina in cases involving negligent homicide accusations – similar to manslaughter in UK law. The appeal is set to take place on February 10. Mr Nores’ new lawyer is expected to base his defence of his client on the argument that Liam Payne knew about the dangers of drug taking and continued to consume without anyone forcing him to do so.
The three men charged with manslaughter after Liam’s October 16 death at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires and awaiting to hear if they will be put on trial are businessman Mr Nores, hotel chief receptionist Esteban Grassi who made a 911 call moments before he died, and head of security Gilda Martin.
They are facing between one and five years in prison if convicted as charged although they have been told they could be eligible for suspended jail sentences. The other two suspects, 24-year-old waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz and 21-year-old suspended hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, have both been charged with selling Liam cocaine and warned they could face prison sentences of between four and 15 years if convicted. They are currently being held in jail.
Mr Nores’ alleged managerial role towards Liam, a position he has denied holding, has been key to the decision to prosecute the businessman. Judge Bruniard in an indictment ruling just under a month ago accused Mr Nores, currently banned from leaving Argentina because of the charges against him, 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 he plunged from after binging on drink and drugs.
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 is not among the five people charged and there is no suggestion at this stage she will be accused of any wrongdoing, or that she was actually acting as Liam’s assistant manager in any formal or informal capacity. Argentinian prosecutors referred to Liam’s friend Roger Nores 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 recent TMZ documentary 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. ” Mr Nores has 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 Mr Grassi and Mr Martin, Laura Bruniard 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, who has denied any wrongdoing and insists he took drugs with Liam but never sold him cocaine, was arrested on January 3 so he could be remanded in prison. The other three suspects have been allowed to remain free men but were told to surrender assets to stay out of prison.
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