The hunt for Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi‘s former manager Sergio Andrade Sanchez has intensified after he “seemingly disappeared” in what authorities believe is either Mexico or Spain. A Los Angeles County judge ruled Wednesday that the first two Jane Doe plaintiffs to sue Trevi and Andrade with claims of childhood sex abuse in California can invoke an international treaty to help track him down.
Andrade – a once-powerful producer previously convicted of rape and kidnapping in Mexico – has kept a low profile since the Jane Does first filed their lawsuit in December 2022. The complaint, filed under the California Child Victims Act, alleges Trevi, Andrade and singer-actress Mary Boquitas lured the Doe plaintiffs into a globetrotting music group when they were 13 and 15 years old and then subjected them to sexual abuse in the early Nineties during trips to California.
“It’s clear the parties are making substantial efforts to locate and serve Mr. Andrade Sanchez, who may be in Mexico or may be in Spain. He mysteriously appeared in some medical facility in Madrid and then seemingly disappeared after that,” Judge Jared Moses said during the morning hearing in Pasadena, Calif., where he granted the plaintiffs’ request for more time to complete service of their complaint. In his order, the judge directed the court clerk to help the plaintiffs reach out to Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Hague Convention and have Mexican authorities serve Andrade at his registered business. (The business, called Excis S.A. de C.V., is listed online as Andrade’s publishing entity. It was reactivated in 2018, according to court filings, and has an address north of Mexico City in the Mexican state of Hidalgo.)
“I’m hoping we can find Mr. Andrade as soon as possible,” Boquitas, whose legal name is María Raquenel Portillo Jimenez, said during the hearing Wednesday. Boquitas is representing herself in the case and appeared by video. A lawyer for Trevi had no objection to the Jane Does serving Andrade abroad.
Trevi, 56, denies abusing the Jane Doe plaintiffs and filed a cross-complaint in the case that alleges Andrade sexually abused her too. She says the two Jane Does knew she was a victim herself and therefore should be held liable for either aiding and abetting the alleged abuse or engaging in a cover-up. Trevi alleges 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 states. “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 alleges Trevi was subjected to “sadistic punishments,” starved, and “brutally beaten” to the point she sometimes passed out.
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, alleges 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 passage, Jane Doe 3 alleges 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 claims. “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.
The new pair of Jane Does also are seeking to serve Andrade internationally. The next hearing in their related case is set for July 19.
Trevi spent four years in pre-trial detention after her arrest in Rio alongside Andrade in 2000. She 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.