Mexican pop diva Gloria Trevi is facing a new civil lawsuit alleging corruption of minors along with her former partner, producer Sergio Andrade. According to a Rolling Stone publication Wednesday, a Los Angeles district court has revived claims that the couple recruited girls and teenagers to be part of a sex abuse ring. The allegations come nearly two decades after a judge acquitted the singer of the same charges: recruiting minors into a sexual exploitation network run by her producer. The artist has not commented on the allegations on her social networks.
The lawsuit, seen by the American magazine, was filed on December 31, 2022. Although she does not specifically identify the artist and producer by name, “it is clear that these are the two main defendants. including the concerts that took place in 1990 and the albums he recorded,” the publication is quoted as saying.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, two women identified as Jane Does (the generic name used to protect their identities in the United States), allege that the singer approached them when they were 13 and 15 and misled them into doing so have to take part in the alleged program of musical training that Andrade had. According to the American magazine, most of the attacks happened in Los Angeles. According to this version, the program has always served as a cover for a sexual network of young girls who have been sexually abused by Andrade for years.
By 1990, Trevi and Andrade had amassed major international fame and show business power, both in Mexico and across the border. Years later, a spate of rape and abuse allegations against various women sparked the scandal. “Andrade was portrayed as a violent serial pedophile and Trevi as his accomplice,” says Rolling Stone. Both were arrested in January 2000 following an international manhunt in Brazil. “[Trevi y Andrade] They used their role, status and power as a well-known and successful Mexican pop star and producer to access, groom, manipulate and exploit themselves [a las víctimas] and to compel years of sexual contact with them,” the new civil lawsuit reads.
In an interview with EL PAÍS in 2018, Trevi also posed as another of Andrade’s victims and assured that he held no grudges against those who accused him. “I have no anger at the girls who said things about me because I know they suffered. I saw them suffer and knew they were under a lot of pressure from the media, their family and society,” he said. The artist has restarted her career in recent years, positioning herself as one of the most celebrated artists in Mexico and Latin America, with tours in several countries. Trevi’s most recent releases allude to her recent concerts, although no formal position is known of her or her team.
The singer was held in a Brazilian prison for four years awaiting trial until a judge ruled in 2004 that there was insufficient evidence to support allegations of rape, kidnapping and corruption of minors, for which she was accused was released without charge. Andrade was convicted of rape, kidnapping and corruption of minors, despite only serving a year behind bars.
After a difficult return to the stage, Trevi seemed to have left that hell behind, but her past returns to put her back at the center of controversy. More than a decade after his release from prison, Trevi staunchly defended what had happened to him during the 2018 Latin American Music Awards: “My molester is free today. It didn’t just hurt me, it hurt a lot of other young women, and it probably will continue to do so,” she said. “[Yo] I was 15 years old when I started living with manipulation, beating, screaming, abuse and punishment. And it was 17 years of humiliation,” he told thousands of viewers of the years he lived with Andrade.
“It took me a long time to speak because I didn’t want to get up with regret. I wanted to get up for my work. However, I felt I had an obligation to challenge and inspire women and men going through situations of abuse to say enough is enough, no more,” she explained in another 2019 interview with the newspaper .
As this is a civil action, the complainants will most likely seek compensation for the damage, which in almost all cases is usually monetary compensation. The lawsuit was filed that day because the state of California enacted a three-year moratorium on sexual abuse victims filing their cases despite the statute of limitations. Last week, Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler was also sued in California for sexually abusing a minor in 1970.
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