Sex, Guns & Money…And How It All Went Sideways: Katherine Alexander Breaks Her Silence on Jesus Salas
From the first time powerful radio executive Jesus Salas and rising pop star Katherine Alexander met two years ago, there were fireworks. Salas, the executive vp programming at SBS (the largest publicly traded Hispanic-controlled media and entertainment company in the United States) who was married at the time, swooned over the arresting, dark-haired Alexander, an aspiring singer and private school teacher. Once he was single again and deep in their affection for each other, he was a gentleman publicly and often preferred to keep their relationship low key unless they were alone, say those familiar with the couple.
The up-and-coming singer, now 24, sometimes wrote love letters declaring her devotion. “I want to make you happy in mind, body and soul,” wrote Alexander in a romantic letter dated Dec. 30, 2013 that included an imprint from a red lipstick she wore. “I’m here baby … I’m with you. Te quiero.”
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She instantly fell for Salas, an industry veteran known as “Zeus,” and it is easy to see why. Salas, now 39, knows some of the world’s most famous pop stars. He has danced with Jennifer Lopez and schmoozes with Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin. For a young woman like Alexander, his largesse might have seemed dreamy.
But that relationship is now threatening to unravel his storied career. It has degenerated into a sensational saga – a drama that includes a lawsuit that makes assertions of fraud, misrepresentation, double dealing and “the intentional infliction of severe emotional distress.”
The former lovers, who lived together for a brief time in 2013, were still an item up until early 2014. A few months later, however, Alexander filed a lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend, alleging that after promising that he “would easily make her a star,” according to court documents, Salas fraudulently “induced” her to enter into an unfair managing contract. The singer’s lawsuit suggests that she should receive more than $1 million in damages, in addition to punitive damages.
The case could have easily gone unnoticed, given that Alexander is little-known. Instead, some of her most salacious allegations were leaked to celebrity news site TMZ. Now, in what is an anomaly in the tight-knit world of Latin music, Alexander’s claims have spilled into the mainstream press. They offer a glimpse into the dynamics that can play out in all forms of entertainment, including the relationship between mentor and artist, the ability of powerful figures to make or break a career and the destructive potential of sexual politics.
In a bizarre twist, Alexander’s case made it to TMZ not because of her lawsuit, but because of a completely separate legal matter. In July, Alexander filed a petition for a temporary injunction in Miami for protection against domestic violence, bringing forward allegations that Salas raped, sodomized and threatened her by talking about guns he possessed.
In an exclusive interview with Billboard on July 31, Alexander spoke candidly about her dreams, her struggles and her relationship with Salas. “It’s a bit of an emotional roller coaster,” she says. “Now it’s about the healing. It’s something that happened and I’ve learned from, and hopefully [it will] prevent other women from going through [this].”
Though the petition has not yet been addressed in a hearing, an attorney representing Salas filed a response to the request for a permanent injunction that details florid love notes and lurid sexual communication that Alexander initiated in the months after the alleged assaults, and calls the singer “just another greedy aspirant to fame.”
Salas, through his attorneys, has denied any wrongdoing and declined to speak directly to Billboard. Instead, he let his representatives respond to all questions.
Alexander reported the assaults on June 14, 2014. She asserts they had happened months earlier, in December 2013 and January 2014, alleging that she was “twice sodomized, once raped and once assaulted with a plastic bag held over her head,” according to the singer’s legal documents. Salas has never been charged.
Salas denies all these claims, adding in his court-filed statements that his ex--girlfriend repeatedly sexted him from January 2014 to the end of April 2014. According to statements to the court, Alexander sent him a text on Feb. 24, in which she sent him a photo of her genitalia and wrote, “I’ve been trying to rape u since I woke u uuuuuppppp.”
Statements from Salas’ lawyers allege that the texts were “sexually provocative and explicit messages often highlighted with [an] even more provocative and explicit ‘selfie’ displaying Ms. Alexander (or portions of her) in various states of dress and undress.”
This is not how it started. When the two first met, according to the lawsuit, Salas was married and Alexander was his child’s music teacher at a private school. Alexander says that when she met Salas, he immediately began pursuing her romantically and encouraged her to sing in Spanish, something she had never done. At first, according to her attorney, Richard Wolfe of Wolfe Law Miami, Alexander attempted to squash the attraction between Salas and herself because he was married. But his 4-year-old marriage to Yemey Salas was on the brink of ending. By late 2012, a separation from his wife was on the horizon and Salas found refuge from his troubled marriage with Alexander. In 2013, he told Alexander that he was single and ready to get serious.
No one has denied the chemistry between the two when they were seen at industry functions, but it was very subtle and even appeared professional, according to a source who saw them at shows. The person also indicates that few others outside their circle knew they were falling in love.
“She sent him love letters because she was in love with him,” says Wolfe. “There was a point in time when they were in love.”
Alexander, a native of Miami, was raised by a Cuban-American single mother. The singer’s father died early in her life and was a police officer, says Wolfe. Alexander attended the University of Florida and studied opera. She has returned home to live with her mother, grandmother and sister.
Salas is a music industry veteran who has won accolades for his work. Previously, he has held positions at several companies, including Sirius XM as senior program director, Univision Radio as a programmer and had a former stint at SBS from 1997 to 2003 as a programmer as well, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Now the one-time lovers are opponents in an ugly lawsuit. The complaint alleges that Alexander is under an exclusive contract for five years and that she does not receive the majority of money made from her recordings and compositions. The lawsuit also alleges that even though her management agreement was signed with a man named Ramon Gonzalez of Gold Voice Radio and Television Network, Salas was the “alter ego and the controlling voice of Gold Voice.”
Salas’ team refutes that allegation. One of his attorneys, Richard D. Lara, managing partner at Mase Lara, declined to discuss details about the pending case, but did reiterate that his client is not guilty of anything and will have his day in court to show that he was only trying to support Alexander. His legal team also disputes any assertion that he was legally linked to Alexander’s career and asserts that the singer was signed exclusively with Gonzalez.
“We feel that the lawsuit in its entirety is a complete fabrication of lies,” says Lara, who is based in Miami. “At no time did Mr. Salas serve as a manager of anybody, including Ms. Alexander, or have any interest in the record company [Gold Voice Records] that she was contractually obligated to provide services to.”
Alexander had never met Gonzalez before this management agreement was signed, says Wolfe. “There is no reason for Katherine to sign a contract with Gonzalez,” whom she did not know, says Wolfe.
Alexander’s complaint includes a notarized letter from Gonzalez, who states that, upon his death, 100 percent of Gold Voice will transfer to Salas. Wolfe questions why the business isn’t going to a member of Gonzalez’s family. Alexander’s complaint also states that “Gonzalez holds himself out as the director of Gold Voice but in reality he is nothing more than the nominee, ‘beard,’ or ‘frontman’ for Salas, who is the true owner of Gold Voice.”
Billboard reached out to an SBS representative for comment. “The company – which is not a party to this action – does not comment on allegations regarding the personal lives of its employees, particularly when these allegations are being adjudicated in a court of law, as is the case here,” says SBS in a statement.
The Alexander/Salas case has drawn major attention in the music industry, with many privately voicing concern over the allegations. Some are divided regarding who they believe is right. Bill Tunkey – managing partner of Robbins, Tunkey, Ross, Amsel, Raben & Waxman, P.A. – who is representing Salas in the domestic violence matter, says that his client was indeed romantically involved with Alexander, but at no time did his client abuse his influence. Alexander signed two contacts in the last half of 2013, says Tunkey, adding, “If you’re forced to do something in September, how long do you wait until you say, ‘I was forced’? This is so f-ing pathetic. It’s not fair. Gold Voice is not Mr. Salas. I’m so angry. No f-ing deed goes unpunished.”
When asked why she waited so long to file the injunction that detailed sexual abuse, Alexander gets emotional. “It was very hard to break free from the situation [the relationship]. He was very controlling, very manipulative,” she says. “There was no way that I could even fathom taking myself out of the house, or even telling him that I was leaving, because it would have been a fight.”
In January, Alexander, by all accounts still on good terms with Salas publicly, was promoting her single, “Put It in a Kiss,” which catapulted the singer to the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart for three weeks in January and February. Both of Salas’ legal representatives deny that he was involved in any way with the promotion of the song, and assert that Gonzalez’s tenure in the music business and strong marketability of Alexander’s music is what made the song soar on the chart.
“Music is not an option for me,” says Alexander. “It’s my life. I know it sounds cheesy, but music chose me. I intend on getting through this and using this to delve more [into] my music and reach the audience.”
Still, one SBS staffer, who spoke anonymously, says that it doesn’t make any sense for Alexander as a non-famous singer to make it to No. 1 on a Billboard chart and become the first female chart-topper on the list since the veteran artist Thalia.
At the height of “Put It in a Kiss,” the song was getting more than 1,000 spins at radio each week on about 30 stations, according to Nielsen BDS. The song topped the Latin Airplay chart on Jan. 18, Jan. 25 and Feb. 1. It spent 14 weeks on the chart in total.
During this time, 13 SBS radio stations across the country regularly played the song, which is an adaptation of Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ On the Ritz.” A dozen other stations outside of the SBS network also played the song, but gave it fewer spins.
Wolfe, who recently tried to settle with Salas’ attorneys, says that he’s hopeful that this case will continue and eventually be presented in front of a jury.
“I would not want to be Mr. Salas when the jury goes into their room,” says Wolfe. “I think a Dade County jury will see that Katherine is your sweet innocent who was taken advantage of and oppressed.”
Not surprisingly, Salas’ lawyer Lara (who also represents Gold Voice Records) has a different take. “I have no idea why Ms. Alexander is bringing these allegations,” says Lara. “At no time would Jesus Salas be her manager for her, or any artist, for that matter.”
Attorneys on both sides say they will have motions and hearings in the upcoming months and believe the case will likely go into 2015. In the meantime, the spectacle will continue.
At the center of the drama, Alexander is at once still reeling and building the resolve to move on with her life. “It’s very difficult having something that you want more than anything, having something that burns inside of you and wanting to express that with the world, and having someone come in and take advantage of that,” says the singer. “It makes you feel helpless, abused and like you have no say in anything. But I definitely plan on pursuing my career.”
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