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valerie1297
Guest
In mid July of '99, I was sexually abused by a co-worker who I had never met before. I was working at a gas station during the overnight shift and I was supposed to be taking over while his shift was ending. He ended up staying later and a whole bunch of abusive things happened. During the course of the night, somehow it slipped out that the person in question had been written up before for what he said was "sexual harassment" from something that happened with another employee at a different store. I went to the police the next day, and they took my report and said that they would take care of it and everything. After getting the run around for a few months, the kid was finally arrested formally sometime around the end of December, I think, and let go on his own recognizense (sp). I ended up leaving my job a few weeks after this happened, after asking my manager over and over to move me to a different shift, simply because I did not feel comfortable working the overnight shift any more, and she said there was no way she could work around it, and I ended up continuing to work overnight practically all of my hours until I ended up quitting. It is the beginning of February now and I have not heard from the district attorney, and the last I heard, I have a court date for the grand jury hearing in early March. I live in a small town (from what I hear, there are only 2 police detectives), and although I have another job now, I do not feel comfortable working there knowing that the kid who did this to me is still walking the streets and could come into the store I work in at any given time. I make considerably less at this job than at the gas station, and I am offended that the company let this happen to me. Like I said before, the kid told me that he had been punished for sexual harassment before, and I feel that the company did put me in jeopardy when they asked me to work at this store during the overnight shift knowing that this kid would be working and on the clock. I would like to know if I can seek reimbursement because of the fact that after this happened, I simply could not handle the stress of working that job anymore. I feel it is the least they can do for me right now. I am also looking at suing the kid and/or his family, and I don't know how I can do this, because we haven't gone to court with it yet, and I don't know what the rules pertaining to these type of cases are. I was planning to move out of the area in January, when my fiance graduated from college, but I am being held up now because of this long court process and I don't feel that it's fair that I have to stay in a small town where this kid can pop up at any time and do something to hurt me again when I could have been gone long ago, and with the money saved to do that (instead of barely scraping by on the income I have now). I am wondering what I can do about all of this, and what I can do to make the process speed up a little. Okay, well a lot. I am very pissed off, and the more I think about this case, the more stressed out and angry I become. Can someone help me out with the legalities of this?? Anything anyone can offer would be great. Thank you!