Lawyer: KBR ignored Iraq worker sexual harassment
HOUSTON - The military contractor KBR Inc. turned a blind eye toward sexual harassment by its contract workers in Iraq, leading to the rape of one of its female workers, the woman's attorney told a federal jury in Houston on Thursday.
Jamie Leigh Jones is suing the Houston-based military contractor, its Houston-based former parent Halliburton Co., and KBR firefighter Charles Bortz, whom she named as the man who led an attack on her while working for KBR at Camp Hope in Baghdad in 2005.The Houston Chronicle reports that her attorney, Ron Estefan, asked jurors to award her up to 5 percent of KBR's net worth in actual or punitive damages - more than $114 million.
"It's a lot of money, but it's a lot of harm that was caused to her," he told jurors.
Estefan also said during closing arguments that KBR failed to enforce sexual harassment policies for years, and that neglect led to the rape of client.
Attorneys for KBR and Bortz told jurors that Jones fabricated the allegations.
"I know it might make a better manuscript ... to tell the story that Jamie was gang-raped and locked in a shipping container, but I am asking you to reject that fiction," defense attorney Joanne Vorpahl told jurors Thursday.
Bortz and his attorney, Andrew T. McKinney, asserted that the Bortz and Jones has consensual sex. McKinney said Jones fabricated the account of being drugged and raped out of fear of gossip among camp co-workers.
"The beauty of having no memory is that you don't have to explain what you did and why you did it," McKinney told jurors Thursday. "The problem with getting your memory back is you have to keep your story straight."
Jurors deliberated about a half-day after receiving the case about midday Thursday. Deliberations will resume Friday morning at the federal court in Houston.
The Associated Press usually doesn't identify people alleging sexual assault, but Jones' face and name have been in media reports and on her own website.