Texas woman loses Iraq rape case against KBR

[right2bfree]

Source: AP

Texas woman 'shocked' after losing KBR lawsuit

By MICHAEL GRACZYK - Associated Press,PAUL J. WEBER - Associated Press | AP – Fri, Jul 8, 2011

HOUSTON (AP) — A former KBR Inc. employee who said she was drugged and raped while working in Iraq lost her civil lawsuit against the military contractor Friday after a federal jury concluded that the sex was consensual. The jury of eight men and three women rejected Jamie Leigh Jones' claims a day after starting deliberations in a Houston federal courthouse. Jones, 26, said she was raped in 2005 while working for KBR at Camp Hope, Baghdad.

Jones sued KBR, its former parent Halliburton Co., and a former KBR firefighter, Charles Bortz, whom she identified as one of her rapists. The Houston-based companies and Bortz denied her allegations.

The alleged sexual assault was investigated by authorities but no criminal charges were filed. "I was going up against a monster," Jones, sobbing loudly, told The Associated Press. "I'm devastated. I believe I did the right thing coming forward."

KBR said it was deeply satisfied by the verdict.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-woman-loses-iraq-rape-case-against-kbr-210931043.html

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More video information on this sad case of a violent rape by KBR employees:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jamie-leigh-jones-claims-iraq-rape-employer-held/story?id=13884264

[sakabatou]

1. Ugh...

[pnwmom]

2. Okay, let's say the rape charges were false. Why would that make

the charges of false imprisonment moot?

[right2bfree]

3. Good point. Its too bad the jury didnt see the video. She was torn up by these monsters..

If this had happened here several KBR "firefighters" would have been in prison for a brutal attack and rape!

[naaman fletcher]

6. I can't post the link

Because I am typing on my phone, but I just got done reading a mother jones article about this trial which casts a lot of doubt on her claims, FYI.

[pnwmom]

8. What about the claim about being imprisoned in the shipping container?

Was doubt cast on that claim, too?

[naaman fletcher]

9. Yeah

Apparently, she had a night of rough,
Drunken sex that she doesn't remember. She may well have been raped, but according to mother jones almost everything
else that she has said is a lie.

[pnwmom]

10. Rough, drunken sex and it's consensual?

That's hard to imagine.

[right2bfree]

11. She was raped by a gang of heathens who would be in jail here in the US. nt

[right2bfree]

13. Really? I didnt see anything like that on mother jones. Its RAPE plain and simple. nt

[rpannier]

17. From Mother Jones Magazine

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/kbr-could-win-jamie-leigh-jones-rape-trial?page=1

edited because I linked to page 2 instead of the beginning of the artiole

[DesertDiamond]

21. How was it concluded that she was "too drunk to remember"? And if she was too drunk to remember,...

how is that consensual?

[plumbob]

30. A doctor at Baylor (yes, the no-booze, no dance Baylor in Waco)

calculated that 5 drinks in 3 hours could have rendered her unconscious at 120 pounds.

So no, he actually never examined HER, nor had any personal knowledge of the crime or the victim.

As a recovering alcoholic myself (since May 24, 1975), I can assure you that folks that weigh 120 or less can drink considerably more than that in that time period without passing out. And yes, my evidence is anecdotal observation, but his isn't even that - it's just a black box calculation that gave a large and well connected corporation results that they wanted.

[right2bfree]

16. Or so you say. I just read MJ and I didnt see anything like that there.

But then whatever it takes to cast doubt on the victim, right?

[The Doctor.]

22. Well, it does help to actually look.

"Roofies: Jones claims that she was dosed with the date rape drug Rohypnol, which she believed was slipped into her drink by one of the KBR firefighters she was partying with in the Green Zone. In one of her congressional appearances, Jones said a contractor handed her a mixed drink and that "I took two sips from the drink, and don't remember anything after that." She testified before Congress in 2009 that "hen I awoke in my room the next morning, I was naked, I was sore, I was bruised, and I was bleeding. I was groggy and confused and didn't know why."

The Evidence: After reporting the alleged attack to a KBR co-worker, who drove Jones to the Army hospital at Camp Hope, she was examined by Dr. Jodi Schultz. Schultz took urine and blood samples, which tested negative for Rohypnol or any other date-rape drug. Jones' legal team has challenged the lab work, arguing that it was never done properly, and also hired an expert to testify that just because the lab tests didn't turn up the drugs doesn't mean they weren't there. But KBR has offered an alternate explanation for her memory loss: Jones was drunk."
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/kbr-could-win-jamie-leigh-jones-rape-trial?page=2

There's enough to support what rpannier said.

She may well have been raped, but there are enough false reports of rape that the real victims tend to be taken less seriously.

[tblue]

25. In the movie Hot Coffee it said parts of her rape kit were missing and

she needed reconstructive surgery, for crying out loud! Kinda hard to fake that.

[saras]

4. Because KBR claims she AGREED to it

If you agree to get drugged into oblivion, tied up, and fucked for days by a gang of strangers, you don't have the right to complain about false imprisonment. You agreed, right?

Rape is a tool of war. If she doesn't know which end to hang on to, she shouldn't be in the military.

:sarcasm:

[right2bfree]

5. Rape when she was in the Green Zone and committed by co-workers?

Since when was that a part of "war", since she was a civilian, not military?

[saras]

19. In keeping with the sober, well-thought-out tone of my previous post

She's in the fuckin' MIDDLE EAST, for chrissakes! Okay, either she's at war or stupid.

She's an American, right? AMERICA IS AT WAR! Hey, wait a minute. If we're at war here, anything goes, boys!

:sarcasm:

good enough?

It's not even a "normal" rape, it's a horror movie script. And our courts say that it's just peachy keen. I think my last sane neuron has given up the ghost. I swear, another year of this and it will be MANDATORY to act out the lyrics to Cannibal Corpse songs on order of a police or military officer.

[annm4peace]

28. exactly.

Just yesterday i was at a Vets for Peace event and on of the speakers was a soldier who was gang raped by her own squad.

over 30% female soldiers are raped by other troops. There is hardly any discipline action. There are men soldiers rapes also but we were discussing females. Often it isn't in combat areas.


If the military won't punish the perpetrators and often ends up punishing in some way the survivor.. then what could we expect from a defense contractor.

If she was so called making this up, why did KBR spend millions covering it up and trying to stop it from ever going to trial?
It what she was saying wasn't true then they would have had it trial right away.

It is shameful and injustice. We will never know how many rapes are committed by contractors.

I have no doubt she is the survivor and KBR paid people off. I'm sure it is an example to anyone who reports a rape especially a brutal rape against war contractors that they will be victimized again in court.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. I wonder how much per juror it cost KBR. nt

[right2bfree]

15. Dont forget the defense and the judge. Chicken feed to KBR.

[annm4peace]

27. I agree

and I can't believe they had the trial in HOUSTON. It didn't have a chance.

[plumbob]

31. Yes, a venue change to Pecos would have been desirable.

West Texas juries have been more plaintiff friendly than the Gulf Coast, North Texas, or the Hill Country, for some reason.

But yes, HOUSTON, ground zero for KBR?

[KT2000]

12. the court system

in Texas is hopeless unless you are a large corporation.
This is just sickening.

[right2bfree]

14. Thankfully my only time in TX was a stopover at DFW. Never set foot on the ground. nt

[tsuki]

24. That what I was thinking, Texas. Sorry, it just popped into my head. nt

[blkmusclmachine]

18. That's "Good Ol' Boy" Justice, TX-style

Hear ye, hear ye: "Justice for SALE." Lucky she wasn't countersued. What a world, what a world.

[blkmusclmachine]

26. edit

strike comment; just saw it was jury decision.

[JJW]

20. So they say she was a slut

and asking to be raped and then imprisoned in a shipping container. There were no authorities because KBR Halibruton are totally above the law per Congress.

Just remember, they hate us for our freedom.

[blackbart99]

23. Well I'm glad she had the courage to go all the way

with the lawsuit. Piss poor outcome, but she had to try. The only good coming out of this
will be fewer women will put themselves in the situation to start with. Girls...the money is good
but the cost is too high. Don't go to work for KBR...we know what the R stands for now...don't we?

[SaveAmerica]

29. There's a reason they tell all females to never go anywhere alone over there, always have a buddy

wherever you go. At first it made me sick when I heard this, they need to educate/punish/control the male servicemembers and solve it that way. Since my husband's return tho, I've wondered if they don't add testosterone to the vaccinations they're given when they go to the middle east.

KBR and Blackwater get away with breaking all other rules when they're in the middle east, why would this case be any different? They get up to some crazy stuff over there.