Why Jamie Leigh Jones can’t take Halliburton to court
Back in December, we learned the painful story of Jamie Leigh Jones, who says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad. Jones filed a lawsuit, arguing that she had been raped by “several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally.”
Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped “both vaginally and anally,” but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers.
This week, it appears that Jones is without legal recourse.
Thanks to an order signed by Paul Bremer, employees of U.S. contractors in Iraq are beyond the reach of the Iraqi criminal justice system, leaving them effectively in a legal black hole…. They could technically be tried in U.S. federal court for offenses committed in Iraq, but logistically that would be very difficult and the Justice Department has shown no interest in prosecuting Jones’s case, meaning her assailants almost certainly won’t face any criminal penalties.
But, to make things worse, as Peggy Garrity points out in an op-ed in today’s Los Angeles Times, Jones also will likely be unable to pursue a lawsuit in civil court. For one thing, Halliburton claims it has mysteriously lost the doctor’s report and photographs taken by a military doctor the day after the rape occurred, so it would hard for her to build a case in the first place. But even if she could, her employment contract stipulated that disputes would be resolved through a binding arbitration process, which lacks (among other things) a jury, rules of evidence, an appeals process, and — perhaps most importantly — media access and a transcript. Federal courts in Texas, Garrity notes, have recently proven fastidious about upholding binding arbitration clauses in all cases.
Jones couldn’t seek criminal justice against her attackers, and then she couldn’t seek civil justice, either.
It’s the result of “tort reform.”
Garrity’s op-ed is worth reading in its entirety.
This is a preview of the demise of the jury system intended by the innocuous-sounding tort reform movement. “Tort reform” is a deliberately deceptive term coined in the 1980s by tobacco, pharmaceutical, insurance and gun lobbyists and lawyers who set about to transform our civil justice landscape by eliminating corporate exposure to civil liabilities. After years of an all-out campaign, at the heart of which was relentless media propaganda, judicial selection and legislation, the courthouse doors are rapidly being closed to average citizens, who will be shunted off into a lucrative private legal system presided over by retired judges employed by alternative dispute-resolution providers.
Many Americans would be surprised to learn they are barred from pursuing a case in court because of boilerplate binding arbitration clauses buried in forms they signed with banks, real estate and escrow companies, auto dealerships, medical care providers (including hospitals) and many other people and entities that may have caused them harm. Yet that’s often the case (and what happened to the two Halliburton employees would have been the same, even if they’d been in Wisconsin rather than Iraq).
Arbitration was marketed as “faster and cheaper.” Well, it certainly is for these business interests. It is a different story for the rest of us.
In such arbitration proceedings, there is no public or media access, no rules of evidence or procedure, no court transcript, no jury and, most important, no appeal — no matter what. Quite simply, there is no accountability in binding arbitration, in which the arbitrators and alternative dispute-resolution providers are paid by the corporate defendants — who are also likely to guarantee repeat business.
Binding arbitration clauses were drafted and put into form contracts by lawyers for the corporations that stood to benefit from them the most. And, it could be argued, the real “judicial lottery” harped on by the tort reformers was the one implicitly offered to members of the judiciary, who are now cashing in.
Tort reform is a game of bait-and-switch in which ordinary citizens have been snookered by carefully orchestrated and relentless propaganda into seeing a phantom boogeyman in the much-reviled “trial lawyer” who brings “frivolous lawsuits” to “runaway juries” that render “out of control verdicts” in “judicial hellholes,” making insurance rates and the costs of all goods and services go up.
Well, none of those expenses have gone down, have they? All the while, the real target was the justice system set up by our founders to protect the average citizen, and now it is in serious peril.
The mind reels.
Forget fair play with these people—it’s just not going to happen. Might I suggest posting the names and photographs of these creeps on the Internet? Maybe even posting the data in Iraq?
Makes me think of the beginning of the Godfather, when Bonasera the undertaker asks for the Don to punish two thugs who put his daughter in the hospital. He had already gone to the courts with little accomplished, and the Don perceived this as a slight, sensing that Bonasera feared him. Of course, the Dons own son was later killed by the alternate justice system the mafia had created, and Bonasera did the burying…
Long story short, vigilantism is NEVER a good solution; it is to civilizations lament that taking justice into your own hands by posting the aggressors info seems to be the only avenue left open to the victim.
I imagine that the female workforce of H/KBR will decline quite drastically.
Thanks to an order signed by Paul Bremer…
The official date of the coup was December 12, 2000. Everything that’s followed is just sweeping up the debris.
The whole tort matter aside.
This is a felony committed against an American. Even is Bushville I find it extremely hard to believe that Americans under the direction of the military are under no laws.
That is fucken nuts. They didn’t just rape this girl, they beat her bad enough to rupture an implant and then held her in a container so she could not contact anyone. One of the Texas Representatives got involved to get her released.
How many people are still locked up that we don’t know about, or dead ?? If they are accountable, who knows what kind of ills are happening over their and even worse, if this is how they treat an American, what are they doing to the locals.
Seems to me a case like this would be enough for a judge to overturn any precedence set in regards to contracts.
Onus, I am betting that you are a man, for if I, as a woman, found myself in this woman’s shoes, vigilantism would have a VERY high appeal. And not just in the Gee Maybe way.
The word rape in our society has lost its meaning. Violent sexual assault against the unwilling. This is not having a baseball stolen. This is not “she’s asking for it” or “she’s a whore anyway” as the less than honorable politician from the south said.
She was repeatedly sexually brutalized vaginally.
She was repeatedly sexually brutalized anally.
This post may nor be well received. So be it. When you have no recourse, what options do you have for justice?
I imagine you are wrong.
Isn’t the free market supposed to sort this sort of thing out? We’re just going to stop buying KBR products, right? What can I boycott?
Boy, that invisible hand sure gets into some unexpected places…..
Ooops…darn end tags! 🙂
Might I suggest posting the names and photographs of these creeps on the Internet? Maybe even posting the data in Iraq?
And a reward, as far as I’m concerned. Sick bastards protected by a sick system.
Long story short, vigilantism is NEVER a good solution; -Onus
I’ve got a George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who may disagree.
If anyone ever did something like that to my daughter, they better pray the justice system gets to them before I Dexter their asses.
pro life nutcases can post abortionists pictures on hate websites but we cant even put a warning to others about these degenerates up somewhere?
Onus , go home from us in peace , we seek not your counsel , nor your arms . Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you , may your chains set lightly upon you and my posterity forget that ye were our countryman .
“the much-reviled ‘trial lawyer’ who brings ‘frivolous lawsuits’ to ‘runaway juries’ that render ‘out of control verdicts’ in ‘judicial hellholes,'”
Peggy Garrity, in just that one short phrase, cleared the air about all the crap we’ve been fed as a public about “tort reform.” It’s amazing the kind of garbage laws that get passed simply because of buzzwords the public isn’t meant to truly comprehend. Any type of “reform” a Republican is involved in is essentially an erosion of the public’s liberty and safety.
She doesn’t have legal recourse because the Bush Crime Family looks after its friends. End. Of. Story.
If she had been assaulted by Iraqi soldiers Bush would be pounding on the podium and demanding their foreskins.
In the world of extremist Islam, which we have identified as our enemy, a woman who has been raped must supply seven male witnesses to the crime in order for the rapist to be prosecuted. Failing that, she is deemed guilty of a crime, shunned by her family and community, and possibly stoned to death or shot by her husband or father.
I don’t suppose I need to point out the sickening irony here.
This whole episode makes me sick to my stomach, but the Garrity op-ed really puts the larger legal issues in stark focus — wow, I’ll never hear the euphemism “tort reform” in the same way again.
Orange, I disagree. First off, Bush doesn’t care about workers. Period. Bush doesn’t care about women. Women workers? Less than persona non grata. If he “perceives” (a big word, I know…and I doubt he knows what it means, but there’s something in that gut of his that would give him a sensation, sort of like Chertoff, but I digress), something that might possibly damage his ability to say IT’S WORKING!, he would not be for it. And you are dealing with a woman in a vastly muslim country. No one cares.
Steve (CB) do you know if she ever said what precipitated this incident? Was there some kind of whistleblower thing going on? For some reason that is in the back of my mind.
I have to disagree with some of the New Republic conclusion that she will be barred from taking this to a civil court. She doesn’t have a contract with the men who raped her, and if she wins a suit against them, it would be pretty hard even for KBR to win even an arbitration case. That said, this is one example that so proves how much we need change in government NOW.
? “Long story short, vigilantism is NEVER a good solution; ” ?
Normally, I’d agree with you. The social contract tells us to forego vengeance, as a civilized society will handle retributions and justice more dispassionately and more accurately. But when society is incapable of doing so, the social contract is broken. For better or worse, Jamie Leigh Jones now has a moral right to do what she wishes in this regard.
Federal courts in Texas, Garrity notes, have recently proven fastidious about upholding binding arbitration clauses in all cases.
Ah yes, “Texas justice,” a major part of “Texas civilization.”
Given that “Republican” is a synonym for “defendant,” someone is suprised they want to “reform” the system out of existence?
If they would do that to their own countryman imagine how many Iraqi women have been raped , except they would be killed and dumped in the desert . What comes to surface is only the tip of the iceberg .Oppresso de Libre
I saw something a while ago about a soldier (female) who as beaten and shot and left in her tent. It was ruled a suicide. Her injuries (which included a dislocated shoulder) were not the sort associated with suicide. Does anyone know what I’m talking about?
Danp, @17
And what would she go to the civil court *with*? Seeing as the firm she did sign her contract with managed to “lose” all the evidence, including the rape kit and the photos? Thus making themselves complicit in the original crime?
Danp,
The point is that there is no longer any evidence…the good ‘ole boy network took care of that!
This young gal is lying.She ‘s been gold digging since day one.The idiot that hired her should be shot.
To The Answer Is Orange: There are a lot of ways to get rid of evidence and inconvenient people in a war zone, with Pat Tillman no exception. I think you might be referring to PVT Lavena L. Johnson, 19, of Florissant, MO, died in Balad of non-combat related injuries. She was assigned as a weapons supply manager. She was found outside her tent with a blood trail from inside the tent. Strange ‘suicide’… Search this page for her name: http://www.nooniefortin.com/iraq.htm
If corporations and their armed thugs are allowed to legally get away with this under the theoretical assumption that justice is better dispensed under “Free Market” rules (read: efficient, cheap, and insulating), then perhaps they should not be surprised when the average citizen starts going out to buy some of their own. What’s the going rate for a “hit” these days? These rapists have to come back stateside sooner or later.
If Haliburton and others wish to profit by the sword, I will cry no tears for them when that sword is turned on them…
Of course, any vigilantee action against the rapists will be called “terrorism” by the DHS.
Remember, the Cheneyburton corporation is an organized criminal operation.
The chances are if a misguided person tried to put a “hit” on these criminals, the Company would take their money and quietly disappear the person who tried to buy it.
Tracy Barker is one of the first victims to bring public awareness as she brought charges against Halliburton/KBR stating that she was sexually assaulted, given drugs to make her sleep, raped, sexually harassed while under their employ and confined to a shipping living container falsely imprisoned in 2004 while working at Camp Hope and in 2005, in Basra. Barker is a military wife and mother of 5 who worked for a Halliburton/KBR subsidiary, in Iraq while her husband served in the US military in the United States Army Golden Knights Parachute Team for the past 24 years. While there, Tracy states she was sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by a State Department employee and a Halliburton/KBR subsidiary. Tracy was also retaliated against when she stood up for the Iraqi women that were being abused on Camp Hope. She was even watched when she went to the bathroom being told that they wanted to make sure she didn’t call the United States again for help including her husband and children. After these incidents, she said she was confined under orders by her employer to a living shipping container. Food was brought to her as if she was a prisoner and she was denied medical attention and any outside communications. She also claims that when she attempted to leave the camp at one point she was brought to a staging area in the middle of Iraq left with no PPE gear and had to ride in a food truck for 19 dangerous hours through Iraq with views of insurgents and starving children, this horrific journey took her back to Camp Basra.
Barker was forced several days later to wear the same clothing the night of the assault and paraded through a crowded dining area and was told that it was a part of the State Departments investigation to see how men reacted to her. At this point she was still refused medical attention. And taken off the convoy list several times.
Eventually, Tracy was able to use a cell phone of Kevin Rodgers, a National Guard. Tracy’s husband 1st Sergeant Galen Barker states that his wife contacted him through Rodgers. Tracy submitted National Guard Kevin Rodgers affidavit back in 2006. Tracy’s husband Galen then tried to get to Kuwait to meet with a friend who works for Black Water so that he could go into Iraq and rescue his wife who was being held like a hostage. However, Tracy continued to be held against her will by Halliburton/KBR and the State Department that continued to stall her release. Tracy was given drugs to make her sleep and to be calm from the assault by KBR/Halliburton’s medic. The following morning Tracy was raped by her supervisor. She was then rescued by Dr. David Pakkal of the State Department who took her immediately to Kuwait to report what had happened.
Several months after returning home in July of 2005, Tracy was never able to get any answers from the State department to have charges brought. Tracy started receiving phone calls from other Halliburton/KBR SEII employees who also alleged sexual harassment and rape while in Iraq. Barker learned that a State Department investigator Lynn Falanga and a Halliburton EAP representative had given her home phone number out to an alleged gang rape victim because they thought Tracy could help her, even though they weren’t even dealing with Tracy’s case or rape.
After returning home, Tracy asked government officials to assist in securing justice.It has been 3 years and congress refuses to help her in her case or even recognize her as one of the first victims to bring public awareness, or recognize her as a victim at all. One Congressman even stated that Tracy came through their office which was inaccurate. When Tracy heard about this she decided to call and ask for help but she was turned down. On the civil side, the State Department has not disciplined the State Department Official who has admitted to State Department investigators some of the events that Tracy described. Not only does this assailant remain employed with the State Department, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia has refused to seek an indictment against him for his conduct. When Tracy asked for answers in the investigation Tracy says that the State Department only contacted her 2 times in 3 years. Attorney Advisor Henry Norcom offered her a payment of $3,500 to drop charges against its employee for the admitted assault and to give up all her rights. Tracy refused the offer, and continues in her pursuit for justice not only for herself, but for others who have experienced the same or similar treatment while serving our country abroad.
October 2007 Tracy was pregnant with twins and was asked to do a 20/20 interview. When this interview ran it did not cover her case entirely by leaving out facts of rape, being given drugs, put in a shipping living container, left in the desert and important filings in Barkers case no one knows why this has happened. When Tracys case was not presented fully she made ABC 20/20 fully aware immediately after it ran. Tracy claims they ignored her. ABC 20/20 also promised if she did the interview telling complete strangers about her case that they would cover her story from the beginning to the end which they have not done.
December 19, 2007 Tracy was asked to write a statement for the Congressional Hearing of Homeland Security, Crime, and Terrorism. Tracy declined because she was invited to DC by Congressman Bob Etheridge saving her testimony for the committee. Paying her own way of $1,300.00 with a 2 hour notice Tracy arrived but when she got there she was not allowed to testify or even speak. Media was shunned away from her case. During the congressional hearing An affidavit of Letty Surman whose name Tracy submitted as one of her witness back in Dec 2005 was given to Tracy to submit to the committee. When she handed the affidavit over it was eyewitness accounts of Tracy’s office, work place, coworkers in Basra Iraq. Talks about Tracy’s accounts from her EEOC charges even names the supervisor who raped her but for some reason did not mention Tracy on this entire affidavit. Even though Tracy declined to write a statement for the Committee after Tracy came home a statement was submitted to the Congressional hearing that Tracy never wrote. Congress has completely ignored Tracy and skipped over her case entirely moving on to the others that came forward after her. Hillary Clinton even refused to help Tracy and told her that she couldn’t help because Tracy was not a New York resident. Tracy was used for a number count and her case has been ignored completely even though she is one of the first that brought public awareness.
As for her former employer, Halliburton and its subsidiaries requested that Tracy’s case against them be resolved through a arbitration that they contend is required by her employment contract. In private, there is no judge or jury, but the case is decided by an arbitrator selected from a list of arbitrators. Recently, a federal district judge known by Judge Miller in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas agreed with Halliburton’s position and granted Halliburton’s Motion to Compel Tracy’s case against her former employer and its subsidiaries to continue proceeding in arbitration with comments in to Tracy that “sexual harassment up to assault is a reality in todays work place”. This was appealed and recently on April 25, 2008 Judge Miller sent Tracy to arbitration again. Tracy’s attorney, Stewart Hoffer of Houston, Texas, had been hired to assist Tracy with the Halliburton case as well as the case pending against the State Department official.
While Tracy continues her pursuit for justice in her own individual case, Tracy wanted to ensure that her experience, and the experience of others, did not go unnoticed by our elected officials. But Congress doesn’t even demand justice in her case and one of the assailants is a State Department employee, it is difficult to demand justice for others especially when no one is working together.
Tracy is working with different departments trying to save her best friends life Yousif. He has been running for his life for 2 years and is stuck in Iraq being hunted by kill units because he worked for an American Company. Tracy is working with her disability of PTSD which makes it very hard for her to write. We are looking for an author to help tell her story about her experience, challenges, and about the abuse that has taken place against Tracy since coming home to the United States, and her struggle to save Yousif while being the only military wife when these assaults happened that has come forward to this day.
Every KBR/Halliburton SEII rape and assault victim deserves justice but it shouldnt be at the price of abusing another victim.
Copyright 2007
dlh
Tell me-what will happen to the Jones when the truth is told about her case which it will be soon?
Tell me what will happen to the little prize she received fr Ted Poe will they take it from her?
What will happen to her freedom when congress finally listens to the real truth?
The truth is always revealed karma does exist and what goes around comes around. Everyone has supported this woman Jones and gasp at the thought of gang rape but lets review the evidence shall we? How does she know she was drugged? Was she tested NO, has she ever been drugged before and this is how she knows she was drugged? If she would have followed the legal age of drinking perhaps she would not have gotten drunk and become vulnereable. How about those statements she submitted to the congressional hearing. Did anyone really pay attention and read that in detail? No. If anyone would learn how to read including congress they would have seen that the statements mention Basra Iraq where Tracy K Barker was NOT Jamie. Remember Jamie was in Baghdad for 4 days so how in the world could she have traveled to Basra and back and still drink with the boys and become a victim of gang rape?
Also the kevin rodgers statement, lets review that as well, Ths statement speaks about Tracy K Barker and how Kevin Rodgers leant Tracy his cell phone to call her husband who is in the Army now for 25 years. Gee lets see Jamie also used this story.
How about being locked in a living container, well there is a statement by another witness that describes Tracy K Barker being locked in a living container and left in the middle of the desert in Iraq for dead taking 19 hours to get back to camp.
The big question is how did Jamie get away with these statements that really did not apply to her but to Tracy K Barker and Jones getting a trial and Tracy K Barker gets arbitration, well folks its because if you look at the filings in Tracys case these statements and evidence and facts were not listed when the previous attorneys who are still Jones attys today filed these documents without them. Was it deliberate hmm I dont know. But when the truth is told it will be very interesting.