Mary Alexander

Personal Injury

Mary E. Alexander is the founder and president of her personal injury firm, Mary Alexander & Associates, PC. Among her recent work are her leadership role in the North Bay Fire cases and her $32.7 million settlement, as liaison counsel, for victims of the 2016 Ghost Fire at an Oakland warehouse.

“It’s very satisfying helping people and making a difference in their lives,” said the attorney, who marks 40 years of practice in 2022.

Alexander is currently working with other lawyers through hundreds of cases brought to firms by plaintiffs alleging to be survivors of childhood sexual assault and abuse at the hands of Catholic priests.

“We are selecting ten bellwether cases out of those hundreds, even as more and more people are coming forward,” she said.

The cases are possible due to the California Legislature’s passage in 2019 of a “lookback window” statute that suspended the statute of limitations and allowed plaintiffs to file civil suits for childhood sexual abuse no matter how long ago the alleged events took place. The window closes at the end of 2022.

Alarmed church officials estimated the resulting litigation could involve claims totaling billions of dollars in retroactive punitive damages.

Alexander and colleagues are negotiating with lawyers for archdioceses around the state to select which bellwether cases to try. “The difficulty is that the defense has cases it wants because of potential problems with notice or other problems, while we are looking at cases involving serial predators,” she said.

Among the cases she is especially eager to get to court is that of a Santa Clara County woman suing the Roman Catholic Church’s San Francisco and San Jose archdioceses over the actions of Father Leonel C. Noia, who died in 2005. The parish priest was criminally convicted in 1976 of sexually abusing two boys on a camping trip and sentenced to six months in jail, five years of probation and was ordered to get psychiatric treatment.

Even so, church authorities assigned him to work in other parishes after his release where Noia allegedly sexually assaulted other children, including Alexander’s client.

The church “failed to take reasonable steps, and to implement reasonable safeguards, to avoid acts of unlawful sexual conduct” by Noia, Alexander’s complaint alleges. Jane Doe v. Doe 1, a Religious Corporation Sole et al., CGC-20- 586529 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 14, 2020).

“The church took him back into the fold, but these predators don’t change,” Alexander said. “This case is an excellent example of the trauma caused by the actions of the church.”

Defense lawyers for the church hope to postpone any trials until after the lookback window closes, Alexander said. “Delay is one of their best weapons. But we believe holding the church accountable is important for making a positive change in the church.”

– John Roemer