To be honest, prior to the Horvath incident, I had always thought of HR as somewhat useless and outdated. Seeing what happened at Github makes me appreciate the need for a strong HR department (especially seeing the wife's influence- had there been competent HR, I can't see that ever happening).
The ironic thing is, that yes, "real HR" would have prevented the wife from harassing Julie, but only because their motivation in doing so would be to protect the company, not Julie.
I would love to hear all sides of this story. her side, hr side, colleague side and management side.