What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?
Massachusetts
I'm not sure I'm posting in the right forum so please bear with me as a new member.
I am a female with a (former) male friend as a co-worker. I have listened to his marital problems - wife's affair, moved out, etc. - for about 6 months while we worked together. Last week he came into the office & told my boss and I that his wife had read his email and decided he is having an affair with me, wants to get him fired, took down phone numbers, email addresses, etc. This accusation is completely untrue, and in fact the email that occured between us were of the 'want to go to lunch' or 'are you in the office today?' nature. He had mentioned in the past he could never say he had a female friend at work due to her jealousy. Meanwhile I realized that a cell phone call I had thought was a wrong number late the night before was actually his cell phone number - when I asked, he said he had not called me. The day that he told us this information, his wife had followed him to the office and he didn't know if she ever left the parking lot. I found this to be a threatening situation, particularly because I am happily married and 4 1/2 months pregnant. I left the office for the day (a Friday) and assumed the situation would blow over. Oh, and I called my husband and told him what was happening.
Saturday morning, this woman showed up at my house. Since I was in a bathrobe working in the basement, my husband went outside to meet her. She first asked him to confirm his name, claimed to be an insurance adjuster and asked if his wife was home. My husband had an idea to expect this, so did not answer that. She then told him who she really was and said that his wife and her husband were having an affair, and here is this folder of emails between us. My husband stayed calm and told her he was not interested in the email messages and that she had the situation wrong and needed to get the idea out of her head. She drove away.
I immediately called the co-worker and asked him how his wife knew where I live - I have a non-published phone number/address. He claimed not to know. Then I told him that we were heading to the police station for a restraining order against her. My husband got on the phone and told him to resolve the situation - he needs to make her understand that there is no affair.
The police told me that due to a lack of a relationship with this person, I am not eligible for a restraining order. I could send her a 'no trespass' order, and my office would have to do one for my workplace - I did this and they also did. The police opened a case file and said that they now have 2 attempts to contact me on record, a 3rd would result in criminal harassment, and a 4th would be stalking.
The end result is that I am worried about a physical threat, as well as emotional distress causing harm to my baby. I'm also extremely angry, with a lot of the anger centered on how this person was able to locate my home address - the husband never had it. I am not sure if pursuing this further legally is 1) an option, 2) would help my emotional state. I am wondering if anyone has information on what legal options I have to protect myself, my family, and my property in this situation.
Thanks for listening.
Massachusetts
I'm not sure I'm posting in the right forum so please bear with me as a new member.
I am a female with a (former) male friend as a co-worker. I have listened to his marital problems - wife's affair, moved out, etc. - for about 6 months while we worked together. Last week he came into the office & told my boss and I that his wife had read his email and decided he is having an affair with me, wants to get him fired, took down phone numbers, email addresses, etc. This accusation is completely untrue, and in fact the email that occured between us were of the 'want to go to lunch' or 'are you in the office today?' nature. He had mentioned in the past he could never say he had a female friend at work due to her jealousy. Meanwhile I realized that a cell phone call I had thought was a wrong number late the night before was actually his cell phone number - when I asked, he said he had not called me. The day that he told us this information, his wife had followed him to the office and he didn't know if she ever left the parking lot. I found this to be a threatening situation, particularly because I am happily married and 4 1/2 months pregnant. I left the office for the day (a Friday) and assumed the situation would blow over. Oh, and I called my husband and told him what was happening.
Saturday morning, this woman showed up at my house. Since I was in a bathrobe working in the basement, my husband went outside to meet her. She first asked him to confirm his name, claimed to be an insurance adjuster and asked if his wife was home. My husband had an idea to expect this, so did not answer that. She then told him who she really was and said that his wife and her husband were having an affair, and here is this folder of emails between us. My husband stayed calm and told her he was not interested in the email messages and that she had the situation wrong and needed to get the idea out of her head. She drove away.
I immediately called the co-worker and asked him how his wife knew where I live - I have a non-published phone number/address. He claimed not to know. Then I told him that we were heading to the police station for a restraining order against her. My husband got on the phone and told him to resolve the situation - he needs to make her understand that there is no affair.
The police told me that due to a lack of a relationship with this person, I am not eligible for a restraining order. I could send her a 'no trespass' order, and my office would have to do one for my workplace - I did this and they also did. The police opened a case file and said that they now have 2 attempts to contact me on record, a 3rd would result in criminal harassment, and a 4th would be stalking.
The end result is that I am worried about a physical threat, as well as emotional distress causing harm to my baby. I'm also extremely angry, with a lot of the anger centered on how this person was able to locate my home address - the husband never had it. I am not sure if pursuing this further legally is 1) an option, 2) would help my emotional state. I am wondering if anyone has information on what legal options I have to protect myself, my family, and my property in this situation.
Thanks for listening.
O