Rape Victim Pushes For Public Trial

Lawyers for Jamie Leigh Jones told a federal judge in Houston Wednesday they believe her case should be settled by a public trial and not a private arbitration process. Attorneys, however, for Halliburton and its former subsidiary, KBR Inc., argued that she signed a contract that binds her to settle all claims — including sexual assault allegations — against her former employer through arbitration.

Ms. Jones filed a federal lawsuit in May saying she was raped by co-workers while working for a Halliburton subsidiary at Camp Hope, Baghdad. Jones' lawsuit claims she lived in a coed barracks and, after enduring harassment from some of the men in the quarters, was drugged and raped on July 28, 2005. The suit alleges that her attackers were Halliburton and KBR firefighters.