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Almost two decades after a judge acquitted Gloria Trevi of being part of a network for the sexual exploitation of minors headed by producer Sergio Andrade, a new civil lawsuit has brought that hell back. A court in Los Angeles revived last December accusations that Andrade and Trevi recruited girls and adolescents for a sexual abuse network. The lawsuit, to which EL PAÍS had access, accuses the producer of raping the girls and the singer and another woman of acting as accomplices and being the hook to recruit them.
Now it has been known that Camille Vasquez, a lawyer who represented Johnny Depp in the defamation trial against Amber Heard, will be in charge of defending the Mexican diva. Vasquez has pointed out that Trevi was also a victim during the 17 years that she was under Andrade’s control and that the producer is “the real monster” in this story. “This case represents an unjustified attack on a victim of sustained sexual, mental and physical abuse,” says a letter that the lawyer and the firm she works for, the Brown Rudnick law firm, have filed with the California court to dismiss the lawsuit. .
The document notes that Gloria Trevi is “one of the many young women who suffered years of cruelty and abuse in the 1980s and 1990s at the hands of one of the true monsters of this world, defendant Sergio Andrade, a convicted man.” for rape and other crimes in Mexico” and adds, “this case represents an unjustified attack on a victim of sustained sexual, mental and physical abuse.”
Vásquez in an interview with the magazine Newsweek He assured that he decided to accept the case of Gloria Trevi after learning about her story. “I felt very convinced to represent her,” said the lawyer. She “She was imprisoned for almost five years, which was a violation of human rights, and she was exonerated of these horrific charges long ago. And yet, she can’t seem to escape the cloud hanging over her. It’s important to me to be able to represent the people I believe in and whose stories need to be told,” she said. After the media trial of Johnny Depp, Vásquez has been recognized by the Hispanic Bar Association as the best lawyer under 40 years of age.
In his eagerness to dismiss the case, he points out as something “regrettable” that the plaintiffs have chosen to focus on Trevi as the first defendant and not on Sergio Andrade, when it was the music producer who orchestrated the entire network of child abuse. “In the trial, the truth will vindicate Mrs. Trevi,” says the lawyer.
The accusations against Gloria Trevi are not new. In 2004, a Mexican judge acquitted her without charge for the same accusations and, nevertheless, sentenced Andrade to prison for the crime of rape and child abuse. The producer spent a handful of years in jail and was later released. At that time, trafficking was not contemplated in the Penal Code, a crime that is currently punishable by up to 40 years in prison. The new lawsuit in the United States could be filed thanks to the three-year window granted by the State of California so that people who have been victims of sexual abuse can claim, even though the cases have already prescribed. The complainants in this case, two Mexican women, have been able to file complaints in the US because they stated in their statement that a large part of the abuses they experienced occurred in California.
In the mid-nineties, Andrade was the most prestigious music producer in Mexico and Gloria Trevi a young promise when their paths crossed. She was 14 years old and he was 35. “For me he was King Midas,” Trevi said recently in an interview on the program traveling with chester of the Spanish chain Four. “When I met him, I looked at him with an admiration that he knew how to make me confuse with love. At that moment, she felt that she was in love with that man. But it was a mirage that he fabricated before my eyes because, in reality, it was not how I idealized it, “said the singer.
In the new lawsuit, the complainants, two women identified as Jane Does (the generic name to protect their identities in the United States), claim that the singer approached them when they were 13 and 15 years old and lured them into joining the alleged musical training program led by Andrade. Always, according to this version, Andrade’s academy actually served as a cover for a sexual network of young girls who for years were exploited and raped by the producer. Among them, Gloria Trevi herself, who lived through that for almost two decades. “He wouldn’t let me have contact with my family or with any other man, but he made it seem normal to me,” the artist said during an interview.
Camille Vásquez will be joined by much of the legal team she worked with to represent Johnny Depp, including partners Leo Presiado, Steve Cook, Ben Chew, Jessica Meyers and Sam Moniz. The first hearing is expected to take place on July 28 regarding a motion filed by Trevi’s team to find out the identity of the two complainants. “The story must be told correctly,” the lawyer told the American press.
For her part, Gloria Trevi has declared that she wants to close this chapter once and for all. “I have taken a long time to speak because I did not want to get up feeling sorry. I wanted to get up for my work. However, I did feel that commitment to denounce and inspire women and men who are going through a situation of abuse to say enough is enough, no more, ”she told this newspaper in 2019.
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