Michelle Malkin links to Ted Frank’s blog, OverLawyered, who looked over the gang-rape case against KBR and came away a bit skeptical, as I was and still am:
In February 2006, Jamie Leigh Jones filed an arbitration complaint,
complaining that, for her administrative assistant job with KBR in Iraq, she was
placed in an all-male dorm for living arrangements, and a co-worker sexually
assaulted her. (KBR says the co-worker claimed the sex was consensual, though
Jones claims physical injuries, such as burst breast implants and torn pectoral
muscles, that are plainly not consistent with consensual sex. The EEOC’s Letter
of Determination credited the allegation of sexual assault.)Fifteen months later, after extensive discovery in the arbitration, Jones,
who lives in Houston, and whose lawyer is based in Houston, and who worked for
KBR in Houston, sued KBR and a bunch of other entities (including Halliburton,
for whom she never worked, and the United States), in federal court in Beaumont,
Texas. The claims were suddenly of much more outrageous conduct: the original
allegation of a single he-said/she-said sexual assault was now an allegation of
gang rape by several unknown John Doe rapists who worked as firemen (though she
did make a claim of multiple rape to the EEOC, though it is unclear when that
claim was made); she claims that after she reported the rape, “Halliburton
locked her in a container” (the EEOC found that KBR provided immediate medical
treatment and safety and shipped her home immediately) and she threw in an
allegation that a “sexual favor” she provided a supervisor in Houston was the
result of improper “influence.” (But she no longer makes the implausible claim
that she was living in an all-male dorm in Iraq.)The US got the claim dismissed quickly (Jones hasn’t yet followed the
appropriate administrative claims procedure); the case was transferred back to
Houston where it belonged (the trial lawyer’s ludicrous brief in opposition
didn’t help). But the fact that the defendants are pointing out that the lawsuit
over a pending arbitration violates 28 U.S.C. § 1927 and are asking for the
court to mandate only one single proceeding in arbitration rather than a
multiplicity of parallel proceedings, is now being treated as a cause célèbre by
the left-wing blogosphere in its campaign against the contractual freedom to
arbitrate. (Note that two elements explicitly designed to arouse the ire and
inflame the passions of the left–Halliburton and gang-rape–only came about after
Jones switched attorneys.)~~~
People with legitimate claims usually don’t have lawyers trying so
desperately to forum-shop that they file amateurish briefs like this, and Jones
loses a ton of credibility with me over that. At a minimum, Jones’s story has
changed over time, and has gotten considerably more lurid.
As I said in the beginning, if the case turns out to be true then off with the heads of those who raped her. My regular readers understand I have no problem with waterboarding so hell, waterboard the eff out of them. But….and this is a big but….the whole case smells. Her stories have changed multiple times, she has a website and a foundation and freaking marketing director for gods sake.
Supposedly evidence was collected and then given over to the company responsible for the rape….huh?
Then read through all of the work Ted Frank did at Overlawyered above and tell me that the case doesn’t seem screwy?
But just as I wrote in my first post, I will give her the benefit of the doubt…for now. As will Ted:
Of course, more facts could come to light that change my mind in either
direction. There’s already been a lot of discovery, but Jones’s papers in court
seem to focus on me-too evidence (that should eventually be held to be
inadmissible) rather than evidence related to Jones. I’d love to see the pending
motions for summary judgment in the arbitration that led Jones to file a second
lawsuit.And one hopes Jones realizes that she’s being used by attorneys who are
pursuing their own agenda to promote the litigation lobby’s pet
anti-consumer/pro-lawyer legislation. The shenanigans of bringing a second
lawsuit and suing the irrelevant Halliburton are not helping her case if she has
a legitimate one.
Is she getting screwed over by the lawyers? Could be. But are her changing stories the work of her lawyers?
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