Ex-Halliburton Worker in Iraq Sues for Rape, Harassment

A former Halliburton Co. employee who worked for the government contractor in Baghdad says the company and the U.S. government are responsible for the "boys will be boys" attitude that led to her being sexually harassed, drugged and raped.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Beaumont, Texas, alleges that the defendants knew about the living conditions and hostile environment that led to Jamie Leigh Jones' injuries, but did nothing to correct the problem.

Halliburton is an oil services company whose former CEO is Vice President Dick Cheney. Subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root is a major player in the reconstruction of oil fields and refineries in Iraq.

Halliburton is currently based in Houston, but recently announced it plans to move its corporate headquarters to Dubai in the Middle East.

According to the complaint, Jones worked for KBR in Houston as an administrative assistant. She says her supervisor convinced her to have sex with him in exchange for time off to take care of her sick mother.

Jones escaped that situation by securing a transfer to another section of KBR, Overseas Administrative Services Ltd., also in Houston.

However, her former supervisor made good on his threat to put a negative recommendation in her personnel file if she transferred, the suit says.

Jones transferred again, this time to Iraq as part of OAS. Beginning in July 2005 Jones lived and worked at Camp Hope in Baghdad, where she was forced to live on a co-ed floor of a male-dominated barracks.

Jones says she was constantly subjected to catcalls and partially dressed men as she walked from her second-floor room to the bathroom on the first floor.

Although she complained to several Halliburton and KBR managers and other representatives about the sexually hostile living conditions at the barracks and asked to be moved to a safer location, her request went unanswered, Jones says.

In July 2006 Jones was drugged and raped by several Halliburton and KBR firefighters, including defendant Charles Boartz, while she was in her room at the barracks, the complaint says.

The next morning, when she asked Boartz what happened to her, he admitted only to having unprotected sex with her, according to the complaint.

Jones reported the rape and was treated at the U.S. Army surgical hospital, she says.

She and her husband, Joseph Daigle, filed suit against Halliburton, KBR, Overseas Administrative Services, Boartz, her former Houston supervisor, the other unidentified alleged rapists and the U.S. government in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

She says the entire Camp Hope facility was under the direct control of the U.S. State Department, the Department of Defense, KBR and Halliburton.

The plaintiffs allege negligence, sexual harassment, retaliation, joint enterprise liability, breach of contract, fraud, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The suit says Halliburton and KBR were aware of the harassment Jones experienced at Camp Hope, but did nothing to stop or prevent it.

The plaintiffs say the companies should have trained their employees better, provided a safe work environment for Jones, supervised employees more closely and warned Jones about the living conditions at the barracks.

Jones also says the corporate defendants owed her a duty of care and breached that duty by allowing their employees to drink alcohol at the barracks, failing to properly investigate employees' backgrounds before hiring them, and failing to transfer or fire those workers when they knew or should have known that they were "unfit and unsafe employees."

The suit alleges that all the defendants were jointly involved with the Camp Hope project in Iraq or, in the alternative, that each is individually responsible for the conduct of its employees.

The defendants' conduct was unreasonable or negligent because they failed to enforce company policies on sexual misconduct, comply with federal law against sexual harassment and hostile work environment, and assist with the investigation of the harassment.

Finally, Jones says she was duped into agreeing to an employment contract for a job at Camp Hope.

Halliburton and KBR knew that women had been subjected to sexual harassment and worse while overseas and that if they told Jones about the problem she would not have accepted the job in Iraq, the suit says.

Jones says she relied on the companies' misrepresentations about the safety measures for women in Iraq when she signed the contract and would not have signed had she known the true story.

Jones and Daigle are asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive or exemplary damages.

To comment, ask questions or contribute articles, contact West.Andrews.Editor@Thomson.com.