The close friend of Liam Payne charged with manslaughter over the One Direction star’s balcony fall death in Argentina is among three people to have their cases dropped.
The raps against Roger Nores as well as two hotel employees were dismissed Wednesday after a court ruled they couldn’t have done anything to prevent the singer from plunging from his balcony at the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires after a drug-fueled night last October.
“Glad this is finally over. I’m happy I’m now going to be able to travel to the UK and say goodbye to my friend,” Nores — an Argentine energy fund tycoon — told Rolling Stone in the wake of the ruling.
The singer’s pal and the two employees — hotel security head Gilda Martin and receptionist Esteban Grassi — were among five people hit with manslaughter charges in December as investigators probed Payne’s tragic demise.
The two men accused of selling Payne cocaine before his death, Ezequiel Pereyra and Braian Paiz, remain in prison awaiting trial.
Payne’s autopsy determined the singer had a toxic mixture of drugs in his system, including crack and so-called “pink cocaine” — a mix of ketamine and other drugs, when he plunged from the balcony back on Oct. 16.
Nores, who was with Payne daily during his two-week stay in Buenos Aires, had initially been investigated on suspicion of abandoning his friend after it emerged he’d left the hotel just hours before the singer’s death.
Still, in the extensive ruling handed down Wednesday, the judges determined that Nores didn’t play a role in Payne “obtaining and consuming alcohol” — nor could he have done anything to prevent the fatal fall.
“It is possible that, if he had stayed in his company at all times, [Payne] would not have obtained the drugs and alcohol in the quantities necessary for the state of intoxication he exhibited at the time of his death,” the ruling states.
“But it cannot be ruled out that, even if he had taken those extreme precautions… that [Payne] would have managed to obtain the substances anyway, as is common among addicts, even when they are under the loving care of their family.”
Meanwhile, the judges found there was no proof the hotel staffers acted in “thoughtless, reckless, or merely negligent behavior” ahead of Payne’s death.
Nores had long denied any involvement in the star’s fatal fall, believing instead that he was being “railroaded’’ and made a “scapegoat’’ by Argentine authorities.
“I never abandoned Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened,” Nores said in a statement soon after the tragedy.
“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.”
