Barker was forced several days later to wear the same clothing the night of the assault and paraded through a crowded dining area apparently to humiliate her. At this point she was still be refused medical attention.
Eventually, Tracy was able to use a cellphone of Kevin Rodgers, a National Guard. Tracy’s husband 1st Sergeant Galen Barker states that his wife contacted him through Rodgers. He then tried to get to Kuwait so that he could rescue his wife from Iraq. However, Tracy continued to be held against her will by Halliburton/KBR and the State Department that continued to stall her release. She was eventually rescued by Dr. David Pakkal of the State Department who took her immediately to Kuwait.
Several months after returning home in July of 2005, Tracy started receiving phone calls from other Halliburton employees who also alleged sexual harassment and rape while in Iraq. Barker learned that a State Department investigator and a Halliburton EAP representative had given her home phone number out to gang rape victims because they thought Tracy could help them, since she had been the first victim to ever speak out.
After returning home, Tracy asked government officials to assist in securing justice. On the civil side, the State Department has not disciplined the State Department official who has admitted to State Department investigators some of the events that Tracy described. Not only does this assailant remained employed with the State Department, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia has refused to seek an indictment against him for his conduct. Rather than terminate the employment of the official, Tracy says that the State Department offered her a payment of $3,500 to drop charges against its employee for the admitted assault. Tracy refused the offer, and continues in her pursuit for justice not only for herself, but for others who have experienced the same or similar treatment while serving our country abroad.
As for her former employer, Halliburton and its subsidiaries requested that Tracy’s case against them be resolved through a arbitration that they contend is required by her employment contract. In private, there is no judge or jury, but the case is decided by an arbitrator selected from a list of arbitrators. Recently, a federal district judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas agreed with Halliburton’s position and granted Halliburton’s Motion to Compel Tracy’s case against her former employer and its subsidiaries to continue proceeding in arbitration. Tracy’s attorney, Stewart Hoffer of Houston, Texas, has recently been hired to assist Tracy with the Halliburton case as well as the case pending against the State Department official.
While Tracy continues her pursuit for justice in her own individual case, Tracy wanted to ensure that her experience, and the experience of others, did not go unnoticed by our elected officials. Accordingly, Tracy was invited to testify before a congressional subcommittee on December 19, 2007 North Carolina’s long time Congressman Bob Etheridge on December 19, 2007. Although Tracy was unable to testify at that hearing, she did provide some documentation to the committee, including a sworn statement of Letty Surman, a former Human Resources employee with Halliburton/KBR and who was an eyewitness to some of her ordeals. Surman’s affidavit detailed Tracy’s workplace experience, In addition to assisting Congress, Tracy has been in touch with Jana Crowder, a resident of Knoxville, Tennessee who, in her spare time, works to help contractors returning from overseas secure assistance with obtaining benefits. To that end, Jana and Tracy have created the War Zone Workers foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to helping United States citizens and legal residents working abroad for federal contractors, corporations, or government entities secure benefits under existing laws designed for their protection and to provide resources so that contractors can obtain immediate medical and mental healthcare upon their return home.
Tracy Barker is also working with Congressman Rob Bishop of Utah to pass legislation designed to ensure that contractors receive medical care through their employer after returning home.
Tracy Barker’s lawyer, Stewart Hoffer, has first-chaired thirteen trials to verdict in multiple state and federal courts around the country. In addition, Mr. Hoffer has represented numerous other clients in litigation and administrative proceedings in state and federal courts not only in his home state of Texas, but also in Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Michigan, Nebraska and New York.
As a testament to Mr. Hoffer’s abilities, for five consecutive years since 2003, Mr. Hoffer has been voted by his peers as a “Texas Super Lawyer,” three times for employment litigation and twice for business litigation. Also, in 2004, “H” Texas Magazine twice chose Mr. Hoffer as one of Houston’s top lawyers – once in multiple practice areas and once for business litigation.
Tracy Barker has brought charges against Halliburton/KBR stating that she was sexually assaulted and harassed while under their employ and falsely imprisoned in 2004 while working at Camp Hope and in 2005, in Basra. Barker is a military wife and mother of 5 who worked for a Halliburton/KBR subsidiary, in Iraq while her husband served in the US military. While there, Tracy states she was sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by a State Department employee and a Halliburton/KBR subsidiary. After these incidents, she said she was confined under orders by her employer to a living container where she was constantly watched including times while she used the bathroom. Food was brought to her as if she was a prisoner and she was denied medical attention and any outside communications. She also claims that when she attempted to leave the camp at one point she was brought to a staging area in the middle of Iraq left with no PPE gear and had to ride in a food truck for 19 dangerous hours through Iraq which took her back to Camp Basra.
