Mexican pop diva released from prison
Yapor joined Trevi's entourage at 12 and gave birth to the abandoned baby,
A judge on late Tuesday found former Mexican pop superstar Gloria Trevi innocent of rape, kidnapping and corruption of minors charges and ordered her immediately released from prison.
After more than a month considering the case, judge Javier Pineda ruled there wasn't sufficient evidence to convict the 36-year-old fallen icon and two backup-singers, who were also absolved of the same charges.
Pineda read his decision in front of a courtroom cage holding Trevi and Maria Raquenel Portillo. The second backup singer, Marlene Calderon, was not behind bars, but listened from elsewhere in the court room.
The trio each could have received a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted. Cheers erupted when he declared Trevi innocent.
Trevi did not speak to reporters after the verdict. Her release from Aquilas Serdan Prison was contingent only on paper work and she and Portillo were expected to walk free in a few hours. Prosecutors will now have at least five days to appeal the ruling, Pineda said. They had alleged that Trevi, backup singers Maria Raquenel Portillo and Marlene Calderon, and their manager, Sergio Andrade, sexually abused girls who joined their globe-trotting entourage looking for musical training. When officials discovered that Andrade's troupe had abandoned a child in Spain in 1998, Trevi, Portillo and Andrade disappeared, touching off a Latin America-wide manhunt. They were arrested in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in January 2000.
Trevi's chief accuser, Chihuahua native Karina Yapor, left the courtroom Tuesday night, before Pineda read his verdict, telling reporters she thought Trevi would be absolved.
"This is an international embarrassment," she said. "A failure of justice."
Yapor joined Trevi's entourage at 12 and gave birth to the abandoned baby, which she has claimed was fathered by Andrade. After years behind bars in Brazil vowing to fight extradition for the rest of her life, Trevi suddenly decided she wanted to have her day in court and was flown to Chihuahua, 760 miles (1,215 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City, in December 2002. Known as "Mary Boquitas," Portillo stayed in Brazil because of health problems, but was extradited to Mexico in March 2003. Calderon was arrested in Mexico City in 1999. She spent a year behind bars, but later was released on bail.
Andrade, who is being held in another wing of the prison and being tried separately, was extradited from Brazil last November, after a lengthy legal battle.
Trevi, nicknamed Mexico's Madonna, was one of the country's biggest pop sensations in the 1990s. Her first three records, featuring songs of adolescent frustration, sold over 5 million copies. Even though her last hit came in 1996, Trevi continues to fascinate Mexico, where posters and calendars of her nude and seminude remain popular.