Jamie Leigh Jones case against KBR should go to court

Attys: Iraq Rape Case Belongs in Court
By JUAN A. LOZANO – 22 hours ago

HOUSTON (AP) — A woman who says co-workers raped her while she was a contractor in Iraq should have her case tried in court, not settled in private arbitration, her lawyer told a federal judge Wednesday.

In a federal lawsuit, Jamie Leigh Jones says she was drugged, raped and held against her will in a storage locker while working for KBR Inc., then a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., in 2005.

As part of her employment, Jones agreed to settle claims against the company in arbitration. But she never imagined such claims would include being imprisoned in a storage locker, said one of her attorneys, L. Todd Kelly.

Attorneys for Halliburton and KBR argued that the contract Jones signed binds her to settle all claims — including claims of sexual assault — against her former employer through arbitration.

Halliburton attorney W. Carl Jordan said that because the purported attack is said to have happened in Halliburton-provided barracks, it ties any claims Jones makes to her employment.

Attorneys for Halliburton, KBR and other subsidiaries that have been sued have disputed Jones' allegations. KBR split from Halliburton last year.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison is expected to rule at a later date.

Jones sued in May, saying she was raped by co-workers at Camp Hope, Baghdad, in 2005
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Since when has a crime like rape, gang rape on top of that, been considered an arbitration case instead of a crime?