While the prosecution of the indictment for rape against Dominique Strauss-Kahn looks flimsier after revelations about the alleged victim in the case, another high-profile rape case appears in danger of foundering on the credibility of the accuser. Four years ago, Jamie Leigh Jones made headlines and became a cause celebre on the Left after accusing KBR employees of gang-raping her and the company of imprisoning her when she attempted to report the crime. The lurid accusations and Jones' singular drive to seek justice, combined with the controversial American military action in Iraq and questions about the control the US had over its contractors there, made Jones into a celebrity, and she plays a starring role in a new documentary about the struggle to access the justice system in America.
The story fell out of the headlines a few years back, but Jones now finds herself in the trial she sought in a civil suit against KBR. But as Mother Jones reports, Jones may well lose her case, thanks to a raft of evidence that rebuts most of her accusations and statements in the last four years:
Jones' trial, which started on June 13, is highlighting significant holes and discrepancies in her story. Not only has the federal trial judge already thrown out large portions of her case, evidence introduced in the trial raises the question of whether Jones has exaggerated and embellished key aspects of her story.
None of this means that Jones was not raped in Iraq. But the evidence does undermine her credibility and could create serious doubts in jurors' minds
A former KBR Inc. employee who said she was drugged and raped while working in Iraq lost her lawsuit against the military contractor Friday.
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 applauded the jury’s verdict, which in addition to rejecting Jones’ claims that she was raped also denied her fraud claim against the company.
“Since 2005, KBR has been subjected to a continuing series of lies perpetuated by the plaintiff in front of Congress, in the media, and to any audience wishing to lend an ear to this story,” spokeswoman Sharon Bolen said in a statement.
When the jury decided that Jones hadn’t been raped, a number of the questions before them were rendered moot, including accusations against Halliburton, said KBR attorney Daniel Hedges.
Jones said the civil trial wasn’t a fair fight. She said she felt she lost because the jury wasn’t allowed to hear details of her attacker’s past but were allowed to hear hers. Bortz said the sex was consensual.
Jones said she believed her bruises and the description of the rape would have swayed jurors.
“I just thought that the physical evidence would help. I guess the fact that my entire life was on display and (his) wasn’t” made a difference, Jones said.
Her attorney had asked jurors to award her as much as 5 percent of KBR’s net worth in actual or punitive damages. That would be more than $114 million, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Attorney Ron Estefan, in his closing arguments, accused KBR of neglecting to enforce its policies against sexual harassment for years by its contract workers in Iraq. The neglect facilitated Jones’ rape, he said.
Lawyers for Bortz and the companies argued that Jones concocted her story out of fear of gossip among co-workers at the camp.
Jones’ mother, Breanna Morgan, said she worried that the outcome might discourage future rape victims from coming forward, saying her daughter, “had to go through so much and she did it to help others.”
“I feel like, because she did that and then there was this verdict, others won’t want to,” Morgan said. “I feel it sends a clear message.”
Here is hoping that so many rape and sexual assault cases turning into zero dollar payoff duds sends a message....Hopefully lawyers will think twice about investing time into these fishing expeditions.
Oh... Nooo... Could it be some one wanted to bring down the Kahn who stood a good chance once of beating the opposition in France??? We wouldn't do that would we???
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