Gloria Trevi’s Lawyer Shuts Down Ghislaine Maxwell Comparisons Amid Lawsuit

Attorney Camille Vasquez has spoken out against the sexual abuse lawsuit levied against Gloria Trevi, telling Newsweek that the Mexican pop star is a victim of herself—and thus should not be compared to Ghislaine Maxwell.

In a lawsuit filed on December 30, two Jane Does alleged that Trevi, now 54, procured them as teenagers in the early 1990s for the benefit of her former producer Sergio Andrade. The complainants allege that the pair used their “role, status, and power” to initiate sexual contact with them over a number of years when they were 13 and 15, respectively.

The Jane Does are introduced in the filing, which has been viewed by Newsweek, as “survivors of childhood sexual abuse, sexual battery, assault, molestation, and abuse” at the hands of Trevi and Andrade, now 67. It is alleged that much of the abuse took place in Los Angeles County.

The complaint was filed narrowly ahead of the December 31 deadline for California’s Child Victims Act, a three-year window that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse claims in the state. Trevi and Andrade are listed alongside a third defendant, whose name has not been publicly released.

Trevi’s legal team has hit back at the allegations, filing a response in court seeking to dismiss the complaint on numerous grounds, including lack of jurisdiction. The filing also seeks to reveal the names of the anonymous plaintiffs.

“This case represents an unjustified attack on a victim of sustained sexual, mental, and physical abuse,” reads the filing, which describes Trevi as “one of many young women who suffered years of cruelty and abuse in the 1980s and 1990s at the hands of one of the world’s true monsters, Defendant Sergio Andrade—a man convicted of rape and other crimes in his native Mexico.”

“Bizarrely, Ms. Trevi is the first named defendant, with Mr. Andrade second,” the filing continues. “It is regrettable that Plaintiffs have chosen to target a woman who suffered the very abuses they allege, instead of focusing on the actual abuser. At trial, the truth will vindicate Ms. Trevi.”

‘Real Defining Difference’

The accusations faced by Trevi have drawn parallels to British-born socialite Maxwell, who in June 2022 received a 20-year jail sentence for trafficking underage girls for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse.

However, Trevi’s attorney, Vasquez—who is co-chair of the Brown Rudnick LLP’s brand and reputation management group—told Newsweek that any such comparison is deeply misguided.

“I think that people will be surprised to learn this case could not be more different than the Ghislaine Maxwell case,” she said. “The real defining difference to me is that Gloria Trevi was a minor of when she met Sergio Andrade. She was 14 years old when she started being abused by him.

“Even though I believe the plaintiffs and some people will want to paint her using the same brush, this is a very different case. You’re dealing with a young woman who was abused, kidnapped, sexually assaulted for years as a minor herself, and controlled by this man—as were the other victims, including the plaintiffs.”

Previous Court Battle

This is not the first time that Trevi has fought such allegations. Often feted as the Mexican version of Madonna, Trevi enjoyed chart-topping success in the 1980s and 1990s before all but vanishing from the limelight alongside Andrade. A flood of sex cult allegations from former protégées arose, with Trevi depicted as an accomplice to Andrade’s serial pedophilia. Following an international manhunt, the two were arrested in Brazil in 2020.

Trevi was subsequently charged with kidnapping, rape and corruption of minors. After spending four years in pre-trial detention, she was acquitted when a judge said there was insufficient evidence to support the charges filed against her. Andrade also spent four years in detention awaiting his trial, where he was convicted of kidnapping, rape and corruption of minors. He spent only an additional year behind bars following his conviction.

In the years since her 2004 release from prison, Trevi has rebuilt her life. She moved to the U.S., settling in Texas where she lives with her lawyer husband, Armando Gómez, and her two sons. She also revived her music career, with the 2007 album Una Rosa Blue and 2011’s Gloria topping Billboard‘s Latin Albums chart.

“I actually saw her perform in Mexico City,” Vasquez told Newsweek. “I was just there last week. She’s an amazing, outstanding performer….She danced for three hours straight—didn’t take one break. I think she had maybe seven or eight costume changes.

“But what I realized by watching her is that performing and writing these songs, and giving back to her fans who she loves—and they love her dearly—it’s her therapy. It’s her form of dealing with the abuse that she sustained and survived.”

Trevi’s music and performances have introduced her to a new generation of fans, who were either too young or not even yet born to enjoy her first wave of success. While this is a source of joy for Trevi, Vasquez admitted that her client is “heartbroken” and “devastated” that she’s facing a repeat of performance in the form of abuse allegations.

“My heart breaks for her every time she talks about this,” Vasquez said. “It’s repeating that pattern of reliving those stories; those horrific stories of abuse….But she’s also incredibly resilient and a strong woman….[Trevi and her husband] are determined as a couple, to finally close this chapter. Tell the truth. And then to put an end to this.”

‘Guilty by Accusation’

In an age in which accusations are all but accepted as convictions in the court of public opinion, Vasquez believes Trevi’s case is part of a turning tide.

“I do think that in this day and age, we are seeing now a response to guilty by accusation,” she explained. “I think that the pendulum has probably swung too far. And people are now taking a stand. Whether it’s a legal stand or a public statement, saying, ‘Enough is enough, I’m denying these allegations,’ or ‘I’m going to sue.’ Because this is defamatory. And so we’re seeing a wave of that in this country, at least in terms of the specific real ugliness of this case, because it does involve pedophilia.”

Trevi has defended herself in the past, memorably making an emotional speech at the 2018 Latin American Music Awards, where she spoke about being associated with Andrade’s crimes.

“I was not complicit. I was 15 years old, with a mindset of 12, when I met a big producer,” she said in Spanish while standing onstage, per Rolling Stone. “[Andrade] immediately sought to become a mirage of love and pretended to be my only chance to reach my dreams. I was 15 years old when I began to live with manipulation, beatings, screaming, abuse, punishment. And it was 17 years of humiliation.”

Vasquez became a celebrity in her own right after successfully representing Johnny Depp in his high-profile defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard last summer. As such, she now has the luxury of picking and choosing the cases she takes.

As for why Trevi’s case appealed, the attorney explained: “After meeting with [Trevi and her husband] and assessing the case, I [felt] very strongly about representing her….She was incarcerated for almost five years—that was really a human rights violation—and exonerated of these horrible allegations many years ago. And yet, it seems like she just cannot escape the cloud that hangs over her. It’s important for me to be able to represent people that I believe in, and whose stories need to be told.”

Trevi’s case will see Vasquez working with much of team that worked behind the scenes and in the courtroom to represent Depp, including partners Leo Presiado, Steve Cook, Ben Chew and Jessica Meyers, and associate Sam Moniz. The first court hearing regarding the latest case is scheduled for July 28 regarding a motion on identifying the plaintiffs.

“The story needs to be told in the right way,” Vasquez said, “and the truth, from Gloria’s own mouth—and these other victims, because they are victims, they’re just not victims of Gloria. They’re victims of one person who is the real villain in the story and a real monster.”