KBR North President Accuses Rape Victim Jones of lying in MS Clarion Ledger

[DeltaLitProf]

If this guy, William Bodie, really is wrong (and let's make sure he is), we need to give him war he won't believe. A couple extracts from his letter:

An Oct. 12th Clarion-Ledger editorial, "Senate: Cochran, Wicker Votes Wrong," criticized Mississippi's senators and others for voting against a misguided amendment by newly elected Minnesota Sen. Al Franken. It is apparent that the opinion's writer does not have a grasp of the facts, relied on inaccurate and false allegations, and did no due diligence to compile accurate information.

* * *

There have been erroneous and inaccurate reports regarding the Jamie Leigh Jones case.

The assertion that Ms. Jones has been denied her day in court is false. A criminal investigation was conducted and found Jones' claims unsubstantiated. A State Department investigation in Iraq, in which numerous individuals, including Ms. Jones were questioned, found there was no evidence Ms. Jones had been sexually assaulted. Further, the Justice Department pursued a grand jury investigation in Florida in February 2008. After hearing all of the evidence, which included testimony from Ms. Jones as well as the firefighter she alleges sexually assaulted her, the grand jury decided to issue no indictments.

The allegation that Jones was imprisoned in a shipping container is also false. Following her reported alleged assault, for her own safety, Jones was provided with a secure living container, or trailer, similar to that in which other KBR employees live. There, Jones phoned her family and was attended to by a female KBR employee who got her food and clothes and, upon Ms. Jones request, spoke with Jones' family to assure them of her safety. The employee also stayed with her for several hours until the State Department, to whom KBR reported the alleged assault immediately, arrived. Despite claims to the contrary, there were no armed guards outside her room. KBR worked with the State Department to arrange for Jones to leave Iraq and provided a female counselor to escort Ms. Jones home.

To date, two formal investigations have been completed and neither resulted in any liability against Ms. Jones' alleged perpetrators. Despite these findings, Ms. Jones continues to pursue legal action against KBR.

William C. Bodie

President

KBR North American

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20091025/OPINION02/910250305/1007/newsfrnt/Cochran--Wicker-right-on-arbitration

[DeltaLitProf]

1. Oof.

I hate to watch this plunge to the bottom of the postings tonight.

[lapfog_1]

2. I don't believe that he addresses the central issue.

Which is the employment contract that Ms. Jones signed with KBR. If she was raped as she claims, she has a civil lawsuit against KBR, NOTWITHSTANDING any criminal case that might be brought against her attackers. KBR should not be allowed to have this issue (employee safety) settled in binding arbitration.

Let's all remember the OJ Simpson case. He was found not guilty in criminal court, but was found "substantially liable" in civil court and the civil court jury awarded a large settlement to the plaintiffs.

What the Franken amendment does is to make this the jurisdiction of US civil courts and not subject to binding arbitration (no matter what the employment contract says).

[thunder rising]

3. Is this what you call "trying the case in the press?" It's not criminal to lie in an OP