Well Street Journal: Jury Favors KBR in Iraq Rape Trial
A jury in federal court on Friday dispatched a high-profile lawsuit against KBR Inc. brought by a former employee, finding she wasn't sexually assaulted by a co-worker while working for the defense contractor in Iraq in 2005.Jamie Leigh Jones, 26 years old, had claimed she was drugged and subsequently raped by former KBR firefighter Charles Bortz just three days after arriving in Baghdad's Green Zone. She further alleged that KBR, a former unit of Halliburton Co., had defrauded her by concealing the risk of sexual assault at its camp in Iraq, and by including a mandatory arbitration clause in her contract for resolving work-related complaints. Her lawyers had sought $145 million in damages from both defendants.
Well Street Journal
Jury Favors KBR in Iraq Rape Trial
By DANIEL GILBERT
HOUSTONâA jury in federal court on Friday dispatched a high-profile lawsuit against KBR Inc. brought by a former employee, finding she wasn't sexually assaulted by a co-worker while working for the defense contractor in Iraq in 2005.
Jamie Leigh Jones, 26 years old, had claimed she was drugged and subsequently raped by former KBR firefighter Charles Bortz just three days after arriving in Baghdad's Green Zone.
She further alleged that KBR, a former unit of Halliburton Co., had defrauded her by concealing the risk of sexual assault at its camp in Iraq, and by including a mandatory arbitration clause in her contract for resolving work-related complaints. Her lawyers had sought $145 million in damages from both defendants.
A day after closing arguments in the four-week trial, the jury of eight men and three women found Ms. Jones wasn't raped, and that KBR had not committed fraud in its employment contract. "We have known the truth for a long time now, and we are very relieved and gratified to get these facts out to the public," said Daniel Hedges, a lawyer representing KBR.
"Since 2005, KBR has been subjected to a continuing series of lies perpetuated by the plantiff in front of Congress, in the media and to any audience wishing to lend an ear to this story," said a KBR spokeswoman.
Todd Kelly, a lawyer for Ms. Jones, said: "We respect the jury's decision based upon the evidence they were allowed to see." Mr. Kelly declined to say whether he would appeal.
Andrew McKinney, a lawyer for Mr. Bortz, criticized media coverage of the trial and said there was "substantial, if not overwhelming evidence to support the jury's verdict." Mr. Bortz maintained that he had consensual sex with Ms. Jones, and he hasn't been criminally charged. He filed a defamation claim against Ms. Jones, but that was dropped at trial as a "tactical move," his lawyer said.
Ms. Jones and her lawyers had fought for years to bring her case before a jury, successfully arguing that the alleged assault was outside the scope of employment-related complaints and shouldn't be bound by arbitration. Her testimony before Congress helped spur a change in federal law in 2009 that denies government contracts to companies that require arbitration to resolve a range of complaints, including sexual assault and harassment.
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