Falsely accused

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

Tiburon5

New Member
I have been falsely accused today of Sexual Harassment in a workplace. I was working in a place repairing the alarm system. A women over there, 2 hour later I left the place accused me of that. Is not real, I never was alone with her. There was my supervisor and another worker from that place. Everybody is agree that nobody saw anything that she's telling about the Sexual Harassment. She had problems in the past with others coworkers but she went to the sheriff office and made a demand. Does she have rights? This is possible to proceed?
 
Tiburon5 said:
I have been falsely accused today of Sexual Harassment in a workplace. I was working in a place repairing the alarm system. A women over there, 2 hour later I left the place accused me of that. Is not real, I never was alone with her. There was my supervisor and another worker from that place. Everybody is agree that nobody saw anything that she's telling about the Sexual Harassment. She had problems in the past with others coworkers but she went to the sheriff office and made a demand. Does she have rights? This is possible to proceed?
Click to expand...




You should make no admissions or sign any confessions about this.

Do not give any statements to anyone, especially the police.

Tomorrow, hire an attorney and follow the advice the attorney gives to you.

From this point forward speak ONLY to your attorney about this matter, and to no one else!

You are at great peril because of this allegation.

ANYTHING YOU SAY, CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU, IN A COURT OF LAW!!!

 
Last edited:
Tiburon5 said:
In this case...does she has a case of harassment? Do I have a case of defamation?
Click to expand...

The answers to those questions are legal conclusions. Only a court can decide that after trial.

Defamation is much harder to prove than sexual harassment. However, if you prevail on her sexual harassment charge it makes proving your defamation allegation that must easier.
 
Just as an FYI:

The right to claim sexual harassment in the workplace is protected by law. For many, many years women (and even some men) were sexually harassed regularly at work, and they could do nothing at all about it or they would be fired. It's been only been a few years that there has been protection from sexual harassment in the workplace (sex discrimination was made illegal in 1964, but sexual harassment was not recognized as a form of sex discrimination until several years later) and the mindset is not yet changed. Because no one wants to discourage those who are legitimately being harassed from reporting it, the right to report SH without retaliation is protected by law.

The other thing to take into consideration (and I am not saying this is what happened, just explaining) is that it is possible to sexually harass someone without being aware that you are doing so. It is not determined on the intent of the accused, but the perception of the victim.

So something to keep in mind; you may not have intended to harass her. It might even be determined that you did not. But if SHE sincerely believes that she was sexually harassed, you will have a very difficult time with a defamation claim.
 
cbg said:
Just as an FYI:

The right to claim sexual harassment in the workplace is protected by law. For many, many years women (and even some men) were sexually harassed regularly at work, and they could do nothing at all about it or they would be fired. It's been only been a few years that there has been protection from sexual harassment in the workplace (sex discrimination was made illegal in 1964, but sexual harassment was not recognized as a form of sex discrimination until several years later) and the mindset is not yet changed. Because no one wants to discourage those who are legitimately being harassed from reporting it, the right to report SH without retaliation is protected by law.

The other thing to take into consideration (and I am not saying this is what happened, just explaining) is that it is possible to sexually harass someone without being aware that you are doing so. It is not determined on the intent of the accused, but the perception of the victim.

So something to keep in mind; you may not have intended to harass her. It might even be determined that you did not. But if SHE sincerely believes that she was sexually harassed, you will have a very difficult time with a defamation claim.
Click to expand...

In this case I'm won't be fired. I work for a company who gave service to the place where the woman works. The owner of my company trust in me 100% and during the time she said the harassment took place I was with my supervisory all time but maybe this issue will be a problem for my futures works because I use to enter in Federal Buildings and Airports, Police Departments all time to service systems and maybe in the future, they don't let me get in, even if at the end I'm inocent.Another issue is my marriage. Could be affected too. That is why I'm asking if I have a defamation case against her.
 
You may or you may not. You certainly can discuss it with a local attorney. However, as I said, unless you are able to show that (first) you have suffered actual damages directly attributable to her accusation and (second) that she was deliberately lying as opposed to honestly (even if mistakenly) believing what she was saying, it is unlikely that you would gain much.
 
Is your employer taking action against you? If not, don't worry about this.

Don't do anything at all unless you are contacted by police- in which case, do not talk to them about it. no need to bother with an attorney unless you are arrested or otherwise dragged into court... which from what you say is very unlikely since you had two witnesses present with you that will contradict the woman's claims.

Personal opinion- move on and forget about it. There is a good chance that any report she made to the police won't ever go anywhere... since they will likely tell her she has a civil issue, not a criminal one.
 
If nothing really like it happened and you have your witnesses to prove your innocence, I think you can sue her as well and teach her a lesson she deserves.
 
If she was making false accusations, then she is also liable right? I was reading this (among other sources) a while ago -
The area of law most implicated by that type of conduct is "defamation of character", a cause of action which is generally defined to include "libel" and slander".

What Are Defamation, Libel and Slander?
Generally speaking, defamation is the issuance of a false statement about another person, which causes that person to suffer harm. Slander involves the making of defamatory statements by a transitory (non-fixed) representation, usually an oral (spoken) representation. Libel involves the making of defamatory statements in a printed or fixed medium, such as a magazine or newspaper.

Typically, the elements of a cause of action for defamation include:

A false and defamatory statement concerning another;
The unprivileged publication of the statement to a third party (that is, somebody other than the person defamed by the statement);
If the defamatory matter is of public concern, fault amounting at least to negligence on the part of the publisher; and
Damage to the plaintiff.
In the context of defamation law, a statement is "published" when it is made to the third party. That term does not mean that the statement has to be in print..... source - http://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/defamation.html
Click to expand...
With this basis, she has legally damaged his reputation, credibility, and his emotions as well so the OP has every right to sue. Am I making sense? I am just an intern at a law company and I am just basing my opinions on what I have learned so far :) Please do correct me if I have the wrong notion on this case. Thanks.
 
So something to keep in mind; you may not have intended to harass her. It might even be determined that you did not. But if SHE sincerely believes that she was sexually harassed, you will have a very difficult time with a defamation claim.
Click to expand...

Karen,

As CBG had mentioned earlier, the lady may sincerely believe she was sexually harassed. This would be extremely hard to disprove. Since she and the OP are strangers, her "opinion" would not be considered as stating a "fact". Therefore, it would not be considered defamation.

Perhaps if she personally knew the OP and knew of his character, then perhaps her allegation could be construed as defamation if what she said was untrue.

I'm not an attorney, though this is my understanding of defamation.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Share this page

Get a free case review from a lawyer
Back
Top