"At will" employee fired for false theft accusations

Sorry, this is very long, but could possible to be a good lawsuit for an interested lawyer in Virginia...

Question: Although I now found out my husband was an At Will Employee (as per his former employer) - he was fired, and told the reason was theft of employer owned property.

Some of the equipment in question was in our house, not stolen, but used for training of staff of the company, WITH the permission of my husbands supervisor and done on free time, unpaid. When asked about it, my husband immediately said yes I have XYZ equipment, with the permission of Mr. X and agreed to bring his boss to our house to "retrieve" the equipment. The rest of the equipment, said to be "stolen" on a particular day, was never in my husband's possession, and his witness (another employee who worked with him that day) was never even questioned. It is possible that this "witness" is the cause of the accusaions in hind sight, but the employer wont allow us any information on who made the original allegations, nor the results of their "investigation"

My husband was sent home on suspension for 4 days, and then was called in and told that he was fired because his supervisor only remembers giving permission for 1/2 of the equipment kept at our house. (which is not logical because it would be useless without the other half, ie computer with no monitor??) No mention was made of the other accusations which could obviously never be proven - because they were purely false.

One more trick - the company is in the middle of big layoffs in which people are receiving 6-8 weeks pay and benefits. We believe this could be a method of "laying off" without the pay and benefits due.

What rights do we have? Do they owe him unpaid vacation hours? Can they tell potential employers that he was accused of theft? Do we have any case for wrongful terminiation? Do we have any case to receive the 6 weeks pay?

We live in Virginia. And if it matters.. I am 8 months pregnant,and the person we believe made these false accusations (though it couldn't be proven without the employers investigation records) was aware of our situation. Also my husband will now not legally qualify for paternity leave to care for me if he gets another job (obviously will not be there for over 1 year...) - is this any grounds for a suit?

I would appreciate your reply by email and would be happy to call a local office to discuss this matter further.

First of all, you can find a local attorney via https://attorneypages.com

Next, assuming that your husband didn't steal the items, you admit that he could still have been lawfully terminated due to his being in an at-will employment status. So what may matter financially to you, from my perspective, is whether your employer has a duty to pay you for the training your husband did at home on his own time. I don't know the answer to that one. Sorry!

Also, if all the employees were told that their lay-off package would include 6-8 weeks of pay, then it is of course probable that the employer is coming up with reasons to terminate in order to save on that money. No big surprise there. Whether or not the situation was such to create a contract entitling your husband to that pay I don't know. You will of course take that up with a local attorney.