Gloria Trevi Clears First Hurdle for Lawsuit Claiming She Was Main Victim of Abuse
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Gloria Trevi has survived a court challenge and can move ahead with her full lawsuit alleging she was a central victim of her ex-manager Sergio Andrade’s “sadistic” sex abuse, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.
The decision followed after the two Jane Does who previously filed a blockbuster childhood sexual assault lawsuit against Trevi and Andrade in December 2022 had asked the court to reject Trevi’s legal action. In their demurrer motion, the women argued that Trevi’s lawsuit, which was brought as a cross-complaint to their action, was simply too vague. They argued that it lacked required “specificity” related to the dates and locations of Trevi’s alleged abuse and necessary facts backing up her claim that the Jane Does knew Andrade was abusing Trevi and therefore should be held liable for either aiding and abetting the alleged abuse or engaging in a cover-up. A lawyer for the Jane Does argued Wednesday that the missing dates were crucial because Trevi is suing under a statute for adult survivors after having missed the deadline to sue as a victim of childhood sex assault.
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“She fails to connect the dots,” lawyer Caroline Whitlock, an attorney representing Jane Doe K.C. 1 and Jane Doe A.H. 2, argued during the hearing in Pasadena, California. “The cross-complaint muddies the facts as to which events, if any, occurred after defendant Trevi reached the age of 18.”
Trevi’s lawyer, Leo Presiado, argued that his client’s cross-complaint was more than sufficient. In his final decision, Judge Jared D. Moses agreed, ruling that Trevi’s cross-complaint was “not incomprehensible” to the point that it should be struck down. He said case law supports Trevi’s right to resolve “certain ambiguities” through discovery. The next hearing in the highly contentious case is set for June 5.
When the two Janes Does first filed their lawsuit on Dec. 30, 2022 — just as the look-back window for older cases of childhood sexual abuse was closing in California — it revived a scandal that had gripped Mexico for nearly two decades prior with allegations Trevi had procured underage girls for Andrade as part of a globetrotting sex ring. Trevi, now 56, spent four years in pre-trial detention but was ultimately acquitted when a judge said there was insufficient evidence to support the rape, kidnapping, and corruption of minors charges filed against her by Mexican prosecutors.
In their complaint, Jane Doe K.C. 1 alleged she was 15 years old when a 23-year-old Trevi “enticed” her into Andrade’s group in 1991 and “groomed” her to become a sex slave. Jane Doe A.H. 2 alleged she was 13 years old in 1989 when Trevi allegedly spotted her outside a Mexico City radio station and lured her into Andrade’s world. The Does allege Trevi manipulated them into sex with Andrade while they were minors — and that they were whipped, beaten, and starved while living and traveling with the pair. Trevi denies the claims.
In her cross-complaint filed December 27, 2023, Trevi sued Andrade for sexual assault and battery, and alleged that he “enlisted” both of the Jane Does “to perpetuate his abuse.” She claimed that with the “assistance” of the two Jane Does and others, Andrade “successfully hid, for many years, the fact that he had gathered around him a group of young women that he controlled, physically and mentally abused, and raped.” (Andrade, who has not responded to the new legal actions, was ultimately convicted and imprisoned in Mexico on charges of rape, kidnapping, and corruption of minors.)
Trevi alleged in her cross-complaint that she was repeatedly and brutally raped by Andrade and that the mental, sexual, and physical abuse she suffered eventually drove her to attempt suicide. “There were many other women and girls that Andrade controlled and abused over the years, but Ms. Trevi was his true star — and, thus, the girl he most needed and wanted to dominate and control,” her lawsuit said. “Instead of living the lifestyle of the rich and famous that one might expect of the ‘Mexican Madonna,’ Ms. Trevi, in private, was often dressed in old rags, sometimes forced to sleep naked for days on a cold bathroom floor.” The cross-complaint said Trevi was subjected to “sadistic punishments,” starved, and “brutally beaten” to the point she sometimes passed out.
Karen Barth Menzies, one of the lawyers representing the two Jane Does, responded to Trevi’s cross-complaint by highlighting her clients’ tender ages and lack of fame when they were swept into the alleged abuse under Trevi and Andrade, two adults at the time. “Exploitation of a power disparity is at the heart of these abuse cases, and it’s obvious who has the power,” Menzies previously told Rolling Stone.
Two days after Trevi filed her cross-complaint, a new pair of Jane Doe plaintiffs sued her in Los Angeles with separate allegations the pop star recruited them into Andrade’s orbit and pressured them to submit to sex or face repercussions. One of the women, identified as Jane Doe 3, alleged that Trevi told her that if she spurned Andrade’s advances, her older sister, an aspiring performer, would be expelled from the group with her career “ruined.”
In one particularly chilling passage of the complaint, Jane Doe 3 alleged that in 1995, when she was over the age of 18 but still a virgin, Trevi led her to Andrade’s bedroom, “pushed” her through the door, and waited outside while she was raped. After the alleged assault, Trevi thanked her, she claimed. “You just saved your sister, you will not regret it. [Andrade] is a wonderful man, and he is the person that I love the most,” Trevi allegedly said, according to the complaint.
Trevi has yet to file an answer to the complaint. She said in a statement last December about her cross-complaint that she was determined to clear her name and hold others accountable.
“I have chosen to take this legal action to fight for justice and to send a message that such appalling acts should not be tolerated. No one should have to go through what I experienced, and I am determined to hold those responsible accountable for their actions,” Trevi said in her statement to Rolling Stone.
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