Micha Star Liberty

Sex Abuse Litigation, Victims' Rights

Oakland

Micha Star Liberty has long concentrated her law practice on representing victims of sexual abuse and assault who are suing their abusers. She traces her dedication to the field to the rape and murder of a close friend when she was just 17.

Liberty was studying ballet at a performing arts high school in San Diego; her friend had graduated the year before. One morning in September 1990, the man later known as the Clairemont Killer raped and fatally stabbed the friend and then her mother. He now is on death row.

"It was then at 17 that I [decided] ... I was going to dedicate my life to helping survivors of sexual violence and other kinds of violence," Liberty said.

Following a stint as an intern in the Clinton White House and a couple of years on the Hill, she returned to the California for law school. She began representing victims of clergy sexual abuse at small Bay Area firm in about 2002 and then opened her own firm in 2005.

"My whole career, I've been doing this work," Liberty said.

She has represented clients in class actions and other large cases, but she prefers cases on behalf of individuals. "I just feel like sexual assault survivors have different and unique needs that lawyers need to meet," she said. "They're not inventory, they're human beings to me."

Liberty has filed 13 lawsuits on behalf of 14 women who were tricked and assaulted by former television writer and executive Eric Weinberg. C.D. v. Weinberg, 22STCV35370 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 7, 2022).

Weinberg also has been ordered to stand trial on 28 felonies.

In a new case, she and co-counsel are representing a woman who was sexually assaulted by her masseuse at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn. Doe v. Accor Hotels & Resorts LLC, 24CV067346 (Ala. Super. Ct., filed March 11, 2024).

Liberty has handled numerous cases alleging sexual assault by massage therapists, both at large spa chains and at pricey hotels. Her co-counsel brought a similar lawsuit against another Fairmont hotel in the Bay Area. "We were able to highlight dozens of complaints" in the current lawsuit, she said.

But when those women complained to the hotel, "the response has been anemic," Liberty said.

Another new case has drawn some national press coverage. She represents a former president of the global PR company Ketchum in a lawsuit accusing the woman's brother of years of physical abuse from the time she was 6 years old and sexual abuse from the time she was 8. McKean v. Hanson, CGC-24-613255 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed March 19, 2024).

"I've done a number of incest cases. I have to say that most of them get settled before a lawsuit gets filed," Liberty said. "But this is one that there was really no interest in having any discussions about resolution, so we had no choice but to file."

-- Don DeBenedictis