Arrest, Search, Seizure, Warrant Criminal Complaint? For What? You're Joking, Right?

Status
Not open for further replies.

mikeman61

New Member
I had done some contract work for a fitness club that I worked at in Massachusetts. They drafted and we signed a contract for me to set-up a web site for them. I would create the basic pages such as home page, directions, about the gym, profiles of staff, contact info, class schedules, etc. This was in 11/04. I would then maintain the site and update it as needed (schedules or staff changes etc.). They agreed to pay me $90/mo for this development and on-going maintenance as well as providing them the server space to host their content.

I registered their domain for them then I built all of the above. I even did more than was actually specified in the contract. I paid for the web hosting and made any edits they asked. In fact, I often sent them messages asking them for information to add to the site and often got no response from them. I also rarely got paid each month and requests about it were going into thin air.

Then in the Spring of 2006 they hired a new Fitness Director. I talked to her about some of the ideas I had for their site that had stalled trying to work with their other staff. She was very enthusiastic about the ideas and worked with me very effectively to add some new areas to the site. Again, it was more than they contracted for, but I never made any issue of it, just glad to get the site moving again. She also agreed to look into the back payments that they owed me and had not paid.

One of the brilliant new management initiatives that the club's management had was to make sure that there was at least one other person that knew everyone's responsibilities. The fitness director told me that they wanted me to train her to do what I do. I told her that was way outside of what I was contracted to do. She had zero experience with website development. I told her that if she took some classes and learned how to develop and maintain a web site then I would gladly go through things with her.

But they were insistent so I exercised my contractual right to terminate my agreement with them following a two-week written notice. In my written notice I told them that they had not been paying me regularly for my services. They never agreed to check their payroll to confirm what they paid me and what they didn't. In fact, it's because they had no real accounting of what they had paid. Their books are a mess. So they told me that If I could prove that they didn't pay me for any months then they would pay me.

Obviously that's not an easy thing for me to do, besides, I have no obligation to maintain records, but from what I understand they are lawfully required to maintain them.
So I told them that if they didn't work with me to straighten things out that I was going to file a complaint in small claims court. This was in July of 06. After writing all of this information to them they never responded to me in any way.

Two weeks after they received my written notice to dissolve our contract I canceled the lease on the server space that I had been paying for to host their domain. I kept copies of all of the content on disc, but told them that before I would hand it over to them I expected then to resolve the non-payment issues. Still nothing.

Bottom line, the domain I registered for them has always been and is still registered to the club's owners. They are free to hire anyone else to get them some server space and set-up shop under that same name. But they are really completely uninformed about what all of this means.

So I never filed a small claims issue with them because it was all too much of a pain in the butt for possibly too little return.

Then, last month, out of the blue, I receive a copy of an Application for Criminal Complaint from a Massachusetts District Trial Court.

Apparently, they filed a complaint with the local police insinuating that I had committed some crime against them. Based on whatever they told the local police their tale resulted in two offense codes:

266/127/A - Destruction of Property +$250, Malicious
266/120/F - Unauthorized Access to a Computer

Not only are these claims totally bogus, but I believe that the management of this club is the one who is actually in violation of serious issues because they have not only not paid me, but they have not even responded to my requests to be paid and cannot produce any cohesive records of payment to me over the past two years. (I would guess that they took this course of action because a lot of the local cops work-out at that gym and they probably know someone).

I read-up on the information on the State AG's website on Employment. I found this information that I thought kind of hit the nail right on the head:

"The Office of the Attorney General may issue civil citations to employers of employees in Massachusetts for violations of state payment of wage, minimum wage, overtime, prevailing wage, pay stub and record keeping, tip pooling, independent contractor, and retaliation laws. A civil citation may be mailed or hand delivered to an employer. A citation can include an order for a business to rectify all infractions, as well as repay restitution to one or more employees. A civil penalty up to $25,000 may also be imposed."

I did talk to a lawyer, he told me to file a small claim against them immediately, which I did. But, if you ask me, it would seem that I should also file a Complaint Form that is on the Mass AG's web site.

I just wanted to get another opinion since I think that this is an outrageous situation. But at the same time I now take it very seriously. By now I could care less whether or not they for over the $1000 or so that they owe me, but since they've taken this bogus counter-action, I don't want to end up out even more!

If you've read this far and have an opinion or recommendation I would be most grateful to hear about it!
 
You need a lawyer to defend you in the criminal cases.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top