Soldier's family suing KBR says it violated confidentiality order
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The parents of a soldier electrocuted in the shower in Iraq claim that the military contractor they are suing for wrongful death violated a confidentiality order it pushed for by releasing information to the media.
Yesterday, lawyers for the family of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth argued that attorneys for KBR Inc. should face sanctions for their behavior.
KBR, however, said that the company has a right to defend itself against misinformation being spread in the public.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer asked for additional briefs from the lawyers and said she will issue an order at a later date.
Cheryl Harris and Douglas Maseth filed the lawsuit over their son's death in April. Sgt. Maseth, an Army Ranger and Green Beret, died on Jan. 2, 2008, while stationed at Special Operations Task Force Central at Radwaniyah Palace in Baghdad.
He was electrocuted while in the shower. According to the lawsuit, KBR, which was contracted by the military to provide maintenance and repairs to the facility, failed to maintain the electrical infrastructure at the former estate of Saddam Hussein.
According to the Army Criminal Investigation Division, Sgt. Maseth died when the electricity in the shower facility short-circuited because an electric water pump on the rooftop was not properly grounded.
In a court filing, attorneys for Sgt. Maseth's parents said that KBR's release of two documents just hours after a Feb. 19 status conference in the case was done "in an effort to 'spin' the facts about their negligence in performing electrical work in Iraq."
They claimed that the documents provided by KBR "contained factual inaccuracies, misleading innuendo and assertions that are at odds with statements made on the record and under oath in the proceedings of this case."
During yesterday's hearing, Stephen J. Del Sole, who represents Sgt. Maseth's family, said that KBR pushed for a confidentiality order in the case to protect soldiers and employees in Iraq, but then violated it.
"The confidentiality agreement is blown," he said. "They can't selectively choose what they disclose to the media."
Further, he claims that KBR has tried to assert attorney-client privilege on internal investigations related to the electrocution issue, but then cited to those investigations in documents released to the media.
But KBR attorney Joseph L. Luciana III said his clients had no choice but to send the documents to the media to correct false information that KBR was responsible for 16 electrocution deaths in Iraq.
"We have a constitutional right to defend ourselves against negative, misleading information."
First Published March 4, 2009 12:01 am
