KBR Says Jamie Leigh Jones Was Asking For It

Jamie Leigh Jones worked for KBR when she was brutally gang raped and imprisoned by co-workers and later rescued by her Texas-based Congressman. Today, KBR dropped its fight to deny her justice. But it’s not all good news.

KBR would like us all to know that, like all rape victims, Jamie Leigh Jones was asking for it, because she had a couple drinks and a pleasant conversation with the man who later raped her. In a press release on their website nauseatingly labeled “Facts About Jamie Leigh Jones Litigation,” they state

Also in Congressional testimony (and in several media interviews), Ms. Jones stated she only took two sips from a drink. However, several witnesses present at the social gathering outside the barracks observed her having several drinks and flirting with one particular firefighter whom she had socialized with the night before. She was also seen leaving the gathering with this firefighter.

The firefighter admits that he and Ms. Jones had consensual sex. However, he is certain that nobody else was present or had sex with Ms. Jones that night.

If you’d like to read Jones’ original filing, you can: she describes in detail being drugged (Oh, wait! Could that be why what she remembers drinking is different than what she was “seen” drinking and why she doesn’t remember leaving with her rapist?) and then waking up bloody and brutalized. To wit:

Tragically, on the evening on July 28, 2007 [sic: it was in 2005], during her off-duty hours, Jamie was drugged (by what was believed to be Rohypnol) and brutally raped by, on information and belief, several Halliburton/KBR firefighters, including defendant, Charles Boartz, while she was in her room in the barracks. When she awoke the next morning still affected by the drug, she found her body naked and severely bruised, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, blood running down her leg, her breast implants were ruptured, and her pectoral muscles torn – which would later require reconstructive surgery. Upon walking to the rest room, she passed out again. When she returned to the living area, she found Charles Boartz lying in her bottom bed. She asked him what had happened, and he confessed to having unprotected sex with her. Jamie reported the rape to the [sic] Pete Arroyo, one of the operations personnal, who then took her to a KBR medical personnel.

KBR additionall asserts that because she didn’t immediately report the brutalizing rape, charge Boartz and only told Arroyo later that morning, she obviously wasn’t “really” raped.

In addition to asserting that her night with Charles Boartz that resulted in medically confirmed vaginal and anal tears, bruising, bleeding, torn pectoral muscles and ruptured breast implants
was consensual, KBR denies, too, that there were any other assailants. According to the PR Department’s statement written by Communications Director Heather Browne, the doctor who performed Jones’ rape kit (the one that mysteriously “disappeared” somewhere between the KBR medical personnel and the State Departmen while Jones was being held in a container against her will) never could have confirmed that she was gang raped, so there’s just no way she was gang raped. As far as KBR is concerned, the whole brutal and horrifying incident is just a little misunderstanding between a woman who’d had a couple of (totally legal) drinks and the man who denies either raping her or raping her with others.

Of course, his statements are “facts” about the case and hers are “allegations,” according to Communications Director Heather Browne, who additionally believes it is her job to protect Charles Boartz’s name in addition to his reputation. Apparently, although Jones has bravely come forward about her sexual assault, Boartz’s good name doesn’t appear anywhere in Browne’s releases.

In addition, Heather Browne would like you to know that Jones’ is just after the money, because she’s never attempted to “serve” Charles Boartz or her other assailants. Of course, the decision to prosecute isn’t up to the victim, and the government not only initially declined to prosecute but then also discovered that, due to shoddy lawmaking, Boartz and his fellow rapists were actually immune from prosecution under Iraqi law because of the Status of Forces Agreement and immune under U.S. law because they committed the rape abroad but were not military personnel. In other words, Boartz may or may not be liable under U.S. civil law. In addition, Charles Boartz is actually labeled as a defendant in the lawsuit that KBR is facing — but serving him might be rather difficult (especially if he’s in Iraq). KBR could probably tell Jones where Boartz is and assist her in serving him with legal papers, especially if he’s still employed by KBR, ever contributed to a pension or 401k, or is using COBRA to maintain his health coverage if he’s no longer employed, but they undoubtedly like making the point that she hasn’t served him more than they’d enjoy serving him with any kind of justice.

KBR On Trial—At Last [The Nation]
Facts About Jamie Leigh Jones Litigation [KBR]
Jones, Et Al v. Halliburton Company et al [Justia]
Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR [ABC News]

Earlier: “What, Don’t You Always End Up In Need Of Reconstructive Surgery After A Night Of Good Consensual Sex?”
DoD To Jamie Leigh Jones: You’re On Your Own, Sweetie
Defense Contractors: If It Wasn’t For Diplomatic Immunity-Protected Rape, They’d Never Get Laid
Justice For All
Iraq Sexual Assault Victim: “I Felt Safer On The Convoys With The Army Than I Ever Did Working For KBR”
KBR Arbitration Awards Another Assault Victim
Jamie Leigh Jones Takes On Pro-KBR Senators On Rachel Maddow
Republicans: Defending Rape Victims Is A “Political” Move