Ex-Univision producer for ‘El Gordo y la Flaca’ charged with felonies in sex-assault cases

Prosecutors have filed felony charges against a former Univisión producer accused of sexually attacking women inside the network’s studio.

The move came nearly three weeks after the Miami Herald outlined the untold saga of Enrique Albis, a former producer for the popular show “El Gordo y la Flaca” who was quietly facing misdemeanor battery charges in a series of attacks over years reported by three women who had aspired to appear on the entertainment gossip show.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office this week filed the upgraded charges in two of Albis’ three pending cases. Albis, who has been free on his own recognizance while awaiting trial, will eventually be rearrested and booked into a jail. He did not answer a call to his cellphone on Thursday and his attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.

In one case, Albis is charged with two felony counts of sexual battery and two counts of misdemeanor battery. In the other case, he’s charged with one felony count of false imprisonment, misdemeanor robbery by sudden snatch and a count of misdemeanor battery.

The story of a producer for an immensely popular Univisión television show using his position to allegedly assault women had received limited coverage in both Spanish- and English-language mainstream media. Among the previously unreported details: Doral police in 2019 and 2020 quietly charged Albis — but only on misdemeanor criminal counts — in four separate cases. Three of the cases are still awaiting trial, and one case wound up being dismissed.

Albis was a producer and actor who appeared on “El Gordo y la Flaca,” which translates into “The Fat Man and the Skinny Woman.” The show is a longtime and Emmy-award winning staple at Univisión.

But Albis was fired in late 2019 after a YouTube entertainment gossip show, “Chisme No Like,” first began airing allegations from a group of women that said that Albis used his position — under the premise of auditions — to lure them to the studio, where he groped or tried to attack them.

In many of the cases, the women alleged, Albis insisted they don a way-too-tight diving wet suit as part of an audition and then he began to repeatedly grope them in a dressing room. In one case, he badgered a woman for sex during two separate encounters, masturbating in front of her both times, according to police.

In one of the upgraded cases, Albis is accused of groping and attacking a woman in her 20s over three visits to Univisión’s studio, 9405 NW 41st St., in spring 2020. Police said that in a dressing room, he tried to get her to perform oral sex, touched her hand to his penis and masturbated in front of her.

After the woman returned to her native Venezuela, Albis “would constantly call and text her asking if she was ready to have sexual intercourse with him,” according to a police report. “Mr. Albis would state that he loved her and would leave his wife to be with her. Mr. Albis promised to pay for everything she ever needed and kept promising a future acting contract.”

When Albis refused to stop contacting her, she threatened to call police. “Mr. Albis stated that she is a foreigner from another country and no one would believe her,” the report said.

Albis was initially charged with simple battery and exposure of a sexual organ, both misdemeanor cases. Now, he’s facing two felony counts of sexual battery and two counts of misdemeanor battery.

In the second upgraded case, the victim told police that she met Albis at a music festival in Homestead, and he said she “would be good” for “El Gordo y la Flaca,” according to an incident report. He eventually invited her to watch a taping of the show in August 2019 and during a break, he told her that he wanted to tell her “something privately.”

It was at that point, in a small room away from the taping, that he began fondling her, trying to kiss her and began masturbating, she later told Doral detectives. “She was able to push past [Albis], exit the room and leave the network building,” the report said.

Initially, Albis was charged only with battery. Now, he’s charged with one felony count of false imprisonment, misdemeanor robbery sudden snatch and a count of misdemeanor battery.

This story was originally published May 27, 2021 at 12:47 PM.