Police Chief Calls Employer to complain

[absolute0]

What is the name of your state? PA

Long story short a traffic stop for a tag that was expired turned into a major mess. It went from one ticket to 2 to having the car impounded. Most would probably think I must have gotten pretty rude with the officer to bring this upon myself, this wasn't the case.

Skipping a bit here I ended up on the phone with the Chief of Police while my car was being loaded onto the tow truck, I was furious at this point and at one point in the conversation he said I wasn't making sense and I replied "what are you stupid, do you not understand what I am saying?" Ok, so it wasn't the smartest thing to say but I was pissed and my emotions got the better of me.

Some more things were said between the multiple officers that had showed up at this point in time. I never insulted anyone nor used profane language. It wasn't the calmest situation but I never threatened anyone, or did anything aggressive, I just spoke my mind about how I felt about the situation.

I wasn't arrested or charged with anything else besides being issued a ticket for an expired registration and inspection sticker.

A few details that may matter in this case:

1: I was pulled over when I was pulling into the parking lot of my work.
2: I was in work uniform
3: I was not "on the clock"
4: I called the chief of police from my cellular phone, not a work phone, while standing outside the building.

__________________________________________________________________________

Ok, so on to the real issue here.

The police chief decides to call the regional office of my employer and file a complaint on me. He stated to them that I was disrespectful in a phone conversation with him by calling him stupid (which isn't exactly the context that I used it in). He apparently said I was rude and disrespectful to officers which isn't exactly true as well, I was certainly anger but I never insulted them .
It's also my understanding that he indicated that they needed to tale some kind of action against me.


Please give me some advice on this, Im not sure if this would fall under slander/libel/def .

I just can't see how he can be allowed to call my work and do that with the clear intent of it being malicious when this had nothing to do with my work.

I'm not quite sure if my employer is going to do anything with this, nobody has approached me to ask me about this or issued any type of corrective actions which is generally what would happen if it were to be a customer complaint.


Any advice or comments are much appreciated.

 

[quincy]

Well, I am a little confused as to how an expired tag on your car led to your car being towed and the police chief calling your employer - I have a sneaking suspicion there is more to this tale than has been told - HOWEVER, based on what you have stated has happened so far, I would say that no, you do not have cause for a defamation suit against this police chief. The police chief, as puzzling as his call to your employer may be (certainly to me), did not, apparently, harm you in your workplace. There has been no ramifications from what he said to your employer.

So, a defamation case at this point, with what you have written so far - no.

 

[absolute0]

Thanks, for the reply. you are correct that there is much more to the story, but I don't really feel it's relevant and would be an extremley long post as the whole situation took place over the course of 2 hours.

It will probably confuse the situation more but I can tell you the statement I made to the officer that made it go from a single ticket to 2 tickets and an impound, I merely stated to the officer " look man, i don't want to have an arguement with you" as he was seemingly trying to draw me into an arguement with him.

Even though there may be no immediate effects I can only imagine a call like that to my regional manager and corporate office may have some negative side effects should a promotion Im qualified for open up.


I am still curious though, should my employer decide to take some sort of action would the Chief then be liable for anything?

 

[quincy]

I honestly don't think you would have any case against the police chief from what you have said, even if your employer does eventually decide to let you go. Again, without knowing all of the specifics of what went on that day and what exactly was said by all involved, it would be impossible for me to give you a better answer than that.