There's blaming the victim, and then there's punishing the victim.
Military contractor KBR is trying to get a woman who said she was raped while working for them in Iraq to pay them $2 million to cover their court fees, claiming her $145 million lawsuit against them was frivolous and fabricated.
Jones said there is "nothing frivolous" about her claims, according to the Wall Street Journal, pointing out that a judge let the trial proceed and that the jury deliberated for over 10 hours before it reached its verdict. [...]
Jones' lawyer Todd Kelly told WSJ's Law Blog that his client doesn't have the means to cover KBR's fee request. "They have beaten us and now they are attempting to crush us," he added. "This is an attempt by KBR to chill other people from bringing claims against them."
Jamie Leigh Jones was working in Baghdad in 2005 when she says she was gang-raped by seven contractors and held captive by KBR guards in a shipping container.
A jury ruled in favor of KBR after 10 hours of deliberation, but I personally find it very hard to believe she would cook up a story like that considering the risks of doing so. KBR doesn't exactly have a track record which instills one with a great deal of confidence and trust either.
Meanwhile, charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn were dismissed today by New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York judge dropped all criminal sexual assault charges against ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday after prosecutors lost faith in the credibility of his accuser. [...]
New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus accepted the prosecutors' request for dismissal of all charges. The move left the man once seen as the leading contender to be the next president of France close to freedom and the chance to try to rebuild his tarnished political career. [...]
Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney's office on Monday outlined how they lost faith in the accuser, hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea who alleged Strauss-Kahn attacked her in his luxury hotel suite and forced her to perform oral sex.
Despite the presence of physical evidence, including Strauss-Kahn's DNA, charges were dismissed because the victim was not considered credible.
Perhaps she isn't. Or perhaps she's a traumatized, poor woman who was afraid to tell the truth about her past precisely because she knew this would happen.
Either way, physical evidence would be enough to convict the average joe in every other instance. Strauss-Kahn isn't the average joe, though. Guilty until proven rich.
Today has been a good day for rapists.