Abuse and million-dollar lawsuits: The past comes knocking on Gloria Trevi’s door

Nearly 20 years after being cleared of luring minors into a sex ring, pop star Gloria Trevi is once again mired in controversy. Not only is Mexico’s answer to Madonna facing a new civil lawsuit resurrecting claims that she procured underage girls for her ex-producer Sergio Andrade, she herself has filed a complaint to sue Andrade as a victim of his abuse.

The accusation comes a year after both Trevi and Andrade were accused of the corruption of minors in a Los Angeles court by two women who requested anonymity, Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2. The victims were allegedly enticed into signing up to a purported musical training program used to screen Andrade’s ghoulish activities with Gloria Trevi as bait. In the last days of December, two other women, Jane Doe 3 — younger sister of Jane Doe 1 — and Jane Doe 4, filed a new civil action for sex crimes against both the Trevi and Andrade.

Gloria Trevi has been maintaining for years that she was also Andrade’s victim. But the civil countersuit she filed on December 28 in California is in order to defend herself against the accusations of Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2. Trevi’s role in the chain of abuse operated by Andrade remains controversial. Andrade has already served a six-year prison sentence for kidnapping, sexual abuse and human trafficking. The artist was acquitted without charges in 2004, after being remanded in custody for four years.

The complainants, who were once Trevi’s backing vocalists, insist that Trevi was also responsible for the abuse they were subjected to. Meanwhile, Trevi, who is 13 years younger than Andrade, maintains that she was also captured as a teenager and suffered the same abuses as the other girls, including rape, whippings, beatings, psychological violence and forced abortions. The singer alleges that Andrade was the “true predator,” while she was a victim of “grotesque” abuses “calculated to break her spirit.” The singer has also alleged in her lawsuit that Andrade kept all the money she generated over the years. Instead of having the luxurious lifestyle one would expect from being the Madonna of Mexico, Trevi would wear old clothes in private and was, on occasion, forced to sleep naked for days on an icy bathroom floor, according to her statement.

The latest allegations made by Jane Doe 3 and Jane Doe 4 and which identify both Trevi and Andrade as the leaders of the sex ring, are thanks to a “lookback” window that has lifted the statute of limitations on adult sex abuse cases in the State of California in the event of an attempted cover-up.

In her complaint, Jane Doe 3 says that Gloria Trevi told her that if she refused Andrade’s advances, her older sister would be “expelled” from the group with her career “ruined.” In 1995, when she was over 18 but still a virgin, Jane Doe 3 was taken by the singer to the producer’s room. “She pushed Jane Doe 3 inside and closed the door,” according to the document obtained by Rolling Stone magazine and to which EL PAÍS has had access. “Trevi stood by the door while Andrade sexually assaulted Jane Doe 3. When the attack was over, Jane Doe came out of the bedroom and Trevi told her: ‘You just saved your sister, you will not regret it. [Andrade] is a wonderful man, and he is the person I love the most,’” the singer allegedly said.

The complainants allege that they were forced to engage in group sex with Andrade, with Trevi as his accomplice. “Defendant Andrade sexually assaulted plaintiff Jan Doe 3 and asked her to engage in sexual acts with him and the victims,” reads the statement. “Defendant Trevi voluntarily and eagerly joined the acts and touched other women and girls of her own volition, without instruction from Defendant Andrade.” Jane Doe 3 says she was abused for years, until Trevi and Andrade were arrested in Brazil in 2000, following an international arrest warrant from Interpol.

The civil lawsuit also accuses dancer Maria Raquenel Portillo, known as Mary Boquitas, of sexual assault and recruiting young girls. “Jane Doe 3 was subjected for years to submission, abuse, threats and violence by Trevi, Andrade and Raquenel,” the document states. Andrade’s second wife, Portillo recently described on the podcast En boca cerrada, produced by Univision, how the producer married her when she was only 15, taking her from her family and subjecting her to all kinds of beatings and humiliations. According to Portillo, the abuse even included Andrade forcing her to eat her own vomit.

“[Andrade] impregnated dozens of young women and girls and then, with the help of third parties, forced or manipulated them into having an abortion,” Gloria Trevi’s complaint alleges. The singer has stated that in the 1990s she was forced to have an abortion in the U.S. “Said interruptions of pregnancy were motivated, in part or in whole, by keeping her sexual abuse secret,” the lawsuit says.

According to Trevis’ statement, “Andrade played a sadistic game with such beatings: Trevi had to be silently spanked and if she cried, sighed or showed signs of discomfort, he would take it as an offense and the punishment would start all over again. During the beatings, Trevi would faint. When she regained consciousness, she was on the floor with Andrade on top of her, sexually abusing her.” Trevi says that the mental, physical and sexual abuse pushed her to attempt commit suicide. In a statement shared with the media, she said that all this time she has kept silent about the abuse to avoid reliving the “horrible experiences” she went through and to “protect her children and her family.”

The singer has sought damages from both Andrade and plaintiffs Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 for defamation and points to one of those plaintiffs as a “direct accomplice” of Andrade. Andrade himself has kept a low profile since his release from prison, but continues to live in Mexico and teaches music and acting classes. Entertainment journalist Gustavo Adolfo Infante has just leaked that the producer would plead guilty to all charges in the U.S. and that he would implicate Gloria Trevi as his accomplice.

For more than two decades the case has been fodder for Mexico’s tabloid and entertainment press. Stories of child exploitation, gender violence and sexual abuse became the stuff of gossip shows and magazine covers, despite the nature and gravity of the crimes, comparable to the cases of Jeffrey Epstein, Jean Succar Kuri, the La Luz del Mundo church and the NXIVM sect. Now the new accusations emerge as a fresh opportunity for a tabloid feeding frenzy.

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