KBR accuser put on defense

Attorneys for accused rapists hammer away at Jones' credibility in

Defense attorneys on Tuesday said medical tests found no evidence of date rape drugs in the system of a woman who claims she was drugged and raped while working for KBR in Iraq.

Jamie Leigh Jones, 26, sued KBR in federal court in May 2007, saying she was raped by several Kellogg Brown & Root firefighters in 2005, while stationed at the KBR installation in Baghdad called Camp Hope.

Defense attorneys cross-examining Jones also said she misled KBR by providing false information on company documents, including her resume, employment application and a medical questionnaire required to assess whether she should be deployed to work in Iraq.

KBR attorney Joanne Vorpahl, citing medical records, said Jones neglected to inform KBR that she had a history of complaining of an impaired memory or that she previously had been diagnosed and treated for depression.

"That was a long time before," Jones said of taking the prescription drug Zoloft for anxiety and depression before being deployed to Iraq in 2005. "I thought if (the condition) was resolved I did not need to disclose it."

Vorpahl pointed out that Jones included on the questionnaire that she had experienced nausea after she had the flu as a child.

"You certainly understood that you were to indicate medical conditions from your past because you went to the trouble of marking down something that happened when you were 5 years old," Vorphal said.

Reported harassment

KBR attorneys also said Jones, who testified she had read the company's Code of Business Conduct and taken a two-hour course on its contents after she was hired in 2004, failed to report to the company's legal or human resources departments that she was being harassed by her former Houston supervisor, as required in the policy.

Jones said she attempted to use what she said was the company's "open-door policy" and reported it to a man she thought was her boss, but never followed up with the legal or human resources departments.

"He was there and he always guided and trained me, so I thought he was my superior," she said.

Threatened with firing

During Jones' testimony on Monday, she told jurors she was forced into a sexual relationship with her Houston KBR supervisor prior to her 2005 deployment in Iraq. She said he told her he would fire her if she did not act like his girlfriend.

"The things I had to do keep my job I hate myself for now," Jones said.

Jones also said during her testimony Tuesday that she believed KBR tried to cover up her rape when they seized her computer's hard drive after she left Iraq.

Her attorney, Todd Kelly, showed the jury two sets of email exchanges between Jones and another KBR employee; one set was supplied by KBR and the other by Jones' legal team.

Difference in times

KBR attorneys said Jones joked with then later confided to a KBR employee in emails that she was experiencing problems with female KBR employees after drinking with company firefighters the night before. According to the company documents, the emails were sent the morning after Jones said she was drugged and raped.

Jones said she had no memory of sending the emails that morning. Time stamps on documents supplied by her lawyers showed the emails were sent the night before Jones said was drugged and raped.

Defense attorney Andrew McKinney also said Tuesday that tests by an Army doctor after the alleged rape found no evidence of date rape drugs in Jones' system.

McKinney represents defendant Charles Boartz, the only alleged assailant identified in the suit. Boartz has denied raping Jones, saying sex between the two was consentual.

The trial resumes today in U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison's court.

By Jessica Priest, Houston Chronicle

Source: Houston Chronicle