What is the name of your state?
Indiana.
I am not sure where to post this, but was wanting to ask advice on how to deal with the situation.
My father is a plumber and steamfitter, and has been for many years. He was recently (well..now not so recently, 4-5 months ago) working at a power plant that was being redone. They were pulling out metal and redoing the entire place. He worked there for months and months and was a foreman.
He noticed the big pile of scrap metal (what they were tearing out) and asked one of the supervisors what they did with the metal and was told they haul it out to the dump. My father is very involved in his catholic church, so he asked his supervisor (an employee of the power plant..not a union member) if he could take some to sell and donate the money to his church. His supervisor thought it was a great idea, as did some of the other workers and they wanted to do the same. My father didn't drive a truck to work, but had one at home...so some of the other workers loaded up the metal and brought it to his house to store in the garage until he could take it to sell it as the metal yard.
While it was sitting in his garage, the state police came with an search warrant, while my father was not home (my mother was there), and searched the premises. A boss from the power plant was there as well, and determined that the metal belonged to his company. They waited for my father to get home and they arrested him for theft and some other charges, and took him to jail on Good Friday, right before Easter.
My father argued that he was told he could have the metal, that other men had brought it to his house, and that he had permission to take it from higher supervisors. At this time, there was much tension within the power plant due to union members/power plant employee's, and non union members. My father was working there 12 hours a day 7 days a week and had became good friends with some of the power plant bosses.
This accusation dragged on for a few months, with court dates and dragging people to give statements, while my father waited for this to go to trial. Many supervisors gave depositions to the prosecutor and to my fathers attorney stating that my father had permission to take the metal but the power plant was infuriated.
Eventually, after a 6 thousand lawyer bill all charges were dropped. The prosecutor kept telling my fathers attorney that he did not have a case at all, but the power plant would not drop charges. Eventually they did, but while this was going on they had banned my father from working at the power plant until the issue was resolved.
This was a few months ago, and all charges have been dropped. To this day, my father is still banned from going to work at the power plant and cannot find work.
There was news camera's at his house, stories written up about him calling him a thief, he is not allowed to go to work at the power plant, and some other companies will not let him work there because he was falsely labeled a "thief".
He doesn't really want to sue his company, even though they damaged his name in a big way...he just wants to work, and they will not let him.
Is this legal, and what can be done about it?
Indiana.
I am not sure where to post this, but was wanting to ask advice on how to deal with the situation.
My father is a plumber and steamfitter, and has been for many years. He was recently (well..now not so recently, 4-5 months ago) working at a power plant that was being redone. They were pulling out metal and redoing the entire place. He worked there for months and months and was a foreman.
He noticed the big pile of scrap metal (what they were tearing out) and asked one of the supervisors what they did with the metal and was told they haul it out to the dump. My father is very involved in his catholic church, so he asked his supervisor (an employee of the power plant..not a union member) if he could take some to sell and donate the money to his church. His supervisor thought it was a great idea, as did some of the other workers and they wanted to do the same. My father didn't drive a truck to work, but had one at home...so some of the other workers loaded up the metal and brought it to his house to store in the garage until he could take it to sell it as the metal yard.
While it was sitting in his garage, the state police came with an search warrant, while my father was not home (my mother was there), and searched the premises. A boss from the power plant was there as well, and determined that the metal belonged to his company. They waited for my father to get home and they arrested him for theft and some other charges, and took him to jail on Good Friday, right before Easter.
My father argued that he was told he could have the metal, that other men had brought it to his house, and that he had permission to take it from higher supervisors. At this time, there was much tension within the power plant due to union members/power plant employee's, and non union members. My father was working there 12 hours a day 7 days a week and had became good friends with some of the power plant bosses.
This accusation dragged on for a few months, with court dates and dragging people to give statements, while my father waited for this to go to trial. Many supervisors gave depositions to the prosecutor and to my fathers attorney stating that my father had permission to take the metal but the power plant was infuriated.
Eventually, after a 6 thousand lawyer bill all charges were dropped. The prosecutor kept telling my fathers attorney that he did not have a case at all, but the power plant would not drop charges. Eventually they did, but while this was going on they had banned my father from working at the power plant until the issue was resolved.
This was a few months ago, and all charges have been dropped. To this day, my father is still banned from going to work at the power plant and cannot find work.
There was news camera's at his house, stories written up about him calling him a thief, he is not allowed to go to work at the power plant, and some other companies will not let him work there because he was falsely labeled a "thief".
He doesn't really want to sue his company, even though they damaged his name in a big way...he just wants to work, and they will not let him.
Is this legal, and what can be done about it?