What The Jamie Leigh Jones Verdict Says About Rape Culture

This is one of those posts that I started, and stopped, and started all over again. It’s a post that has to be written but one I could barely bring myself to write.

Jamie Leigh Jones lost her rape case against Charles Boartz and KBR.

It’s a tragic story and a stark reminder that for women, becoming sexual prey, and then later vilified for speaking out, is unfortunately just part of life.

Jones was working for the Iraq war contractor when she claimed she was drugged and then brutally gang-raped. Jones blacked out, woke up bruised and bleeding and then when she reported the attack to her employer was locked in a shipping container and denied food and water for at least 24 hours.

The main attacker named in the complaint defended the case by saying the sex he had with Jones, while she was unconscious, was consensual. And it was enough for a Houston jury to believe.

To beat the charges the defense did what the defense had to do: they went after Jones’ character. They produced medical experts that testified that her injuries “may” have been consistent with rape. They introduced evidence that Jones had alleged rape before, that she had a book deal and that her success post-attack was inconsistent with someone who was claiming psychological injuries.

The defense was shooting for reasonable doubt. Except there is one problem here. Reasonable doubt is the standard in a criminal case and Jones’ claims were civil. All the jury had to do was believe it was more likely than not that Jones was correct and then they were required to find for her. Think of it as about 51% that Jones was telling the truth.

Instead, the jury found it was more likely than not that Jones consented to sex while unconscious. The jury found it was more likely than not that Jones’ bleeding and fissured vagina and anus were the result of consensual sex that took place while she was unconscious and that it was more likely than not that, in short, Jones is a liar.

Make no mistake about it, Jones was punished in Texas. She was punished for being a woman in the rough-and-tumble world of private defense contracting where consent to sex can happen while passed out and where employers have no duty to provide a safe work environment free from assault. She was punished for being a woman who had the audacity to speak out against her treatment to Congress, to demand an investigation into private security contracting and to step forward as an example for other women.

You see, according to the folks in Houston, Jones had it coming.

photo from apublic citizen via flickr.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Janine H.

5:11AM PST on Jan 10, 2012

Always when i hear about terrible things it makes me sad, and i cannot understand how someone could do something terrible - bully, hurt, rape or kill a person or animal. When i was a child this also happened to me... and surviving this is more terrible than not (parents and other may think different, but a victim?), living with all this pain... living with guilty feelings... full with hate for the own self... having one wish, not to wake up at the following day anymore...
No one can understand, because most people cannot imagine this, cannot imagine how much it change. Some of them think, that this would not be so terrible, because all would make some sexual experiences, and so it would not matter if there were some without own interest or wish. This cruel and superficial society makes me sick.

I know that it is not good to wish someone who does terrible things something as a punishment. But when i hear about violent people then i think why are they so "afraid" to go to someone equal and get some hits for their selves. This is a perversion, to think being more a man when beating a woman or a girl. This men are a shame for all normal men.

"We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not yet learned the simple art of living together as brothers." (Martin Luther King)

send a green star

Morgan R.

8:42PM PDT on Sep 7, 2011

I had something similar happen to me on January 29, 2010. And I just want to thank you for writing this article in a way that doesn't portray Jamie as a liar. Hearing her story, which has so many similarities to mine, has touched me and I admire her for being so strong and for not backing down. The only people out there calling this woman a liar are men, and that's pretty terrifying if you ask me.

Sounds like she got the same jury I did. And I live in one of the most liberal cities in the country.

Johnny B.

9:18PM PDT on Aug 17, 2011

Richard T you should really look up or research your facts first of all the DNA evidence was in halliburtons hands lost for years. But of course they wouldnt tamper with that. Second in court it was proven that the drug screen was taken before the incident and the company was saying it was after (it still had the date on the screening report which was dated before the incident occured proven by a toxicologist) Second her doctor did not disagree with her about reconstructive surgery thats why halliburton paid for the surgery even the expert witness brought into court by halliburton agreed with Mrs Jones saying that the injury was caused by trauma. Why was the main assailants criminal arrest record not brought into court? He has been arrested twice since and convicted once (second conviction pending) since the incident. As far as the criminal investigation, there was no jurisdiction over civilian contractors in iraq until mrs jones pushed for the extension of MEJA and the jury for the criminal investigation was not asked to vote either way innocent or guilty. About being held in a shipping container by armed gaurds well the Third world nationals hired by KBR/Halliburton were certainly armed with assault rifles and didnt she say thats who was keeping her under lock in key yeah she did. You know one of the companies employees came and testefied in court and guess what his job was yep you guessed to lock people up in shipping containers and imprision them. WHat happened to him wel

Gina H.

1:14PM PDT on Aug 4, 2011

It's amazing how test results get tampered with, change or just disappear when Big Government and Korporate Amerika are involved. Richard T., a question... Where did you get your "facts" from? Fox News? Do both you and Sarah G. also work for KBR? Just because there might have been sperm present from ONE male doesn't mean she wasn't gang raped. The male of the species doesn't always use just the penis to rape with. They often enjoy inserting other objects into women's orifices as well. Then there's always the "withdraw before you ejaculate" practice. Like anyone can trust a nurse employed directly or indirectly by KBR to give a truthful account either. Has KBR given you both an incentive to spread their version of events?

Richard T.

6:18PM PDT on Aug 3, 2011

When the time came to put up or shut up, Jones' "gang-rape" claim simply disappeared. DNA evidence showed she'd had sex with one only man, and he claimed it was consensual.

In fact, the whole crime disappeared: After an investigation, no criminal charges were brought.

Instead, Jones' lawyer brought a civil suit against KBR and its employees -- with a much lower burden of proof -- alleging only a routine he-said, she-said date-rape case.

Jones' claim that she had been drugged with Rohypnol was demolished by tests taken by a female military doctor the day after the alleged attack. Rohypnol is detectable for 72 hours, but there was no trace of it, or any "date rape" drug, in her system.

Jones said the attack was so brutal that her breast implants were ruptured and her pectoral muscles torn, requiring massive reconstructive surgery. This was contradicted not only by the female doctor who examined her the next day, but also by her own plastic surgeon back in Houston.

Her claim that KBR management had held her at gunpoint in a shipping container vanished when it turned out she had only remembered that part of the story two years after it supposedly happened (coincidentally, just as the media frenzy began).

Perhaps the Rohypnol made her forget something else: KBR employees, including security guards, don't even carry guns, much less machine guns.

Larry W.

11:33AM PDT on Jul 25, 2011

Sarah G you are so right. This has been pointed out several times on here but the masses' need for expression of their 'righteous' anger will not be tempered by facts. And these people get to vote, too!

Sarah G.

10:05AM PDT on Jul 25, 2011

People need to get thei facts straight. She was not unconscience. She told her co-worker who drove her to work that she had sex with this guy and the guy was going to break up with his girlfriend and start dating her. SHE WAS NOT UNCONSCIOUS. Once she got to work and found out she was going to be working with that "girlfriend" she fabricated a story to get her out of Iraq. The army doctor said her fissures could have been caused by feminine scratching. Her "bruises" were so minor that one looked like an insect bite. Jones' problem was that she told so many lies, she couldn't keep them consistent. That is what happens to liars. Don't feel sorry for her. She lived off of KBR for four years while furthering her education. She also got a bad boob job fixed by KBR. She got too greedy.

Grace A.

11:15AM PDT on Jul 20, 2011

Whether it was rape or not it was at least assault. She was knocked unconscious and came to with injuries.

Aruna B.

2:37AM PDT on Jul 18, 2011

If this story concerns you. please think of looking at this Facebook page for my murdered lover May

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000970765628#!/pages/May-Ewan/143792455700298?sk=info

Helen K.

8:01PM PDT on Jul 17, 2011

I hope Jamie reads these comments. Jamie, justice was not done. You were raped, take some solace from the fact that we have sympathy for you and it makes us crazy that the verdict didn't go the other way.