Ex Girlfriend Slander w/Liabel

[Abe Froman]

What is the name of your state? TX Sometime in Jan. of this year my ex girlfriend, who had been my ex for about two months by that time, invites my employer out to her home and meets with them, and has her mother with her, for the purpose of show and tell. That is, showing them a bunch of my stuff she was suppose to be back to me, but for whatever reason she suggested it was all stolen stuff from my work. It wasn't, but while asset protection and my current and former boss were there rummaging through my personal things like it was ok to do (Yea, don't need to post a question about that one), she was able to do what she does best, lie like she means it to them about me being the plague, or something bad.

I can show where it effected my job, income, reputation, and career over all, if I sue for liable, who has the burden of proving I'm not what she claims, or conversely, that I am what she claims?

Thanks

 

[quincy]

How did you learn of this "show and tell"?
Did your employers, past or present, recognize any of the articles as belonging to your places of employment?

(libel, by the way, is written defamation and slander is spoken defamation and liable is what you would be if the items at your ex-girlfriend's place were recognized as coming from your places of employment)

If you brought suit against your girlfriend, you would have to prove she was guilty of the charges you are bringing. Truth is an absolute defense against defamation charges.

 

[Abe Froman]

forgive me

I'm going to be lazy and not look that up, or think on it too much as it is late. But... there were items that did belong to my employer, but that my boss referred to as things one would accumulate over a period of a 17 year career working here, and left it at that. They didn't see it as theft or fowl play.

The ex only invited them out there to try to convince them I was stalking her and porbably abusive and assaultive and who knows what else, the petty items was merely a trick. In fact, I think it was a PSAP console (911 answering posibition) and loose hex head screws. Now, I might could find a use for some of those screws down the road, but the 20 year old console I won't have even put in the fire place. And my peers recognized that.

and thanks for the reply.

 

[cbg]

Here's another question for you.

What damages did you suffer? It doesn't sound as if your bosses were all that interested in what she had to say.

 

[Abe Froman]

Damages

I was fired. But wait, that's not all. When the GF invited them out to her/our house, they (a group of my management peers) sort of rumaged through my stuff, my personal stuff as the GF was slandering me by saying things like I was stalking her, as well as other equally favorable things. The problem is, and despite her best efforts, I wasn't doing that and never have and she did stalk me. She even tried setting me up one morning on my way to work by having someone wait for me on the route I normally take, then once spotted, she pulled in behind me and started chasing me. I expected as much, so when I spotted her, I nailed it and got up to at least 100mph for maybe 7-8 miles before slowing down. Within seconds she was on my bumper and called the police. They came out and took reports from both of us and told me I could go because they were arresting her. Around 4 hours later, I called the police back to check on the status, and they told me they didn't even file my report and took hers, but didn't arrest me, and never did, despite my best efforts. Had they, and becasue she and I had cell phones, I could have sent a court order to the data center that houses the triangulation data for both cells and it would have shown her stalkiing me. I even worked for the company that owns that data, so I sent that center a nice email saying, hey, you're my new bestes friend, and, mine this data and hold onto to it as I know it only hangs around for a couple of months and there may be a court order on the way for it, best friend. I'm off topic for this thread I know, but as it relates to the slander, her statements were a complete contradiction to the truth and to some degree, allowed my employer to violate my privacy and lead to them firing me. The reason stated was nothing more than a form letter stating a violation of a company code of ethics, which is about equal to understanding the TX statutes, times two. So, in short, my career I had or 17 years with a perfect everything record, until she came along.

 

[quincy]

Well, that sucks. Sorry.

Unfortunately, since you did have items belonging to your employer at your home, no matter how worthless they might have been, you gave your employer good reason to fire you, even if they didn't need a reason. It would be hard to prove that slander alone lost you your job. Plus, most employers do not like a lot of drama in the workplace.

I hope you can locate a job you enjoy, and I recommend you do not introduce your next girlfriend to the management.

 

[Abe Froman]

Items

Sorry, and without fine toothing my previous posts, I may need to clarify. There wasn't anything found to have been stolen or that should not have been there that was company property. So, nothing was at my home that shouldn't have been, everything was in fact mine. What was taken back to my place of work was my stuff, my personal things that they also rumaged through. And, I didn't introduce this GF to management, she sniffed them out herself in order to build a better case against me in another matter.

My boss admitted to her slandering me, and did so as he was handing me whatever personal items he had taken from her place. Not only is that a violation of my privacy, in my opinion, it certianly appears to be slander.

 

[quincy]

You were fired for violating your company's code of ethics? So, did the firing have to do with the slander, or wouldn't your boss say? The firing would have to be connected directly to the slander if you were to have any chance at bringing a successful defamation suit. You should find out what the code of ethics violation was.

In order to bring a slander suit against your ex-girlfriend, you would need the testimony of your current boss or your former boss or the asset protection person, all of whom were apparently present when your girlfriend was slandering you. And, again, you would need proof that the firing was the direct result of the slander.

Defamation suits are expensive to bring and time-consuming. Slander suits are especially difficult to bring and to win. The awards for damages in slander suits tend to be less, as well, since slander is considered a "lesser" defamation, since what is said is said, and then it's gone (whereas libel, since it's written, sticks around longer). You could contact an attorney in Texas to see if any action against your ex-girlfriend is worth pursuing. (If she has no assets, by the way, it will probably not be worth the time and expense to sue.)