False Accusation

[brawleykid]

I have been accused of having sex with a subordinate. I have been told very few details of the claim "pending investigation" and have been placed on administrative leave. What are my options?

I have been told the names of the people making the claims and this is what I've pieced together. The woman (claiming two sexual encounters) and her boyfriend both work for my division of the company. The woman claiming these sexual encounters recently was caught on tape (at work) cheating on her boyfriend. Her boyfriend called me threatening to quit becuase he couldn't work "in these conditions". That same day, my boss called and informed me I was being placed on leave pending an investigation into a accusation. I immediately speculated that the boyfriend had confronted his girlfriend about cheating, but guessed she was cheating with me. She, being extremely weak-willed, went along with his accusations and together they filed a complaint.


Two days later, I was called into work and told that these two employees claim I had sex with the woman on two occasions - once last year and once several weeks ago - both encounters were claimed to take place during work hours, on company premises. The areas the events supposedly took place are both under surveillance by company cameras. I told my superiors to narrow down the date of the "events" and then pull the tape - should clear up the issue immediately.

The tapes should clear me on the charges, but what recourse do I have against the accusers and the damage on my reputation their complaint has made?

 

[FlaRiptide]

what recourse do I have against the accusers and the damage on my reputation their complaint has made?

Your reputation will only be damaged if the accusations are found to be true. If the tapes prove you innocent, then your reputation will not suffer any damage.

 

[brawleykid]

Your reputation will only be damaged if the accusations are found to be true. If the tapes prove you innocent, then your reputation will not suffer any damage.

Clearly you have not been publicly accused of sexual misconduct. Thank you for the sensitivity. :dunno:

Anyone else actually have some constructive feedback?

 

[tpajet]

FlaRiptide might have been a bit blunt, but at the same time he's also very correct.

Your possible recourse would be a slander suit against the person who made the claims. But you are going to have to proove 3 things.

1- You have to proove it was said.
2- You have to proove it was false.
3- You have to proove someone believed it was true.

1 and 2 are almost always easy, and certainly that's the case here. However, #3 would be the hangup in your case. If it comes back that the tapes have in fact shown you are not guily of the accusatoins, then the compnay should clear you in the invsetigation, but that also means that they didn't believe it was true. So, that pretty much means game over for your case.

The only argument you could try might be that since you were put on leave it meant that someone did believe it, but at the same time the compnay is only following a procedure of investigation, so that wouldn't really work.

Ultimatly if the tapes clear things up, then it's going to be hard to prove damages. You might be able to go with an angle of psycological damage or something along those lines, but you would need a lawyer.

You also need to ask yourself, what do you think the compnay will do with the two employees once they find out the accusations are false? You may want to see if HR will do a harrasment report for you.