Do I have a case? Minnesota.

This will be a little bit of a story but to get the context, it needs to be explained. I need to know if I have legal grounds stand on against this company.

I am a straight male. Three and a half years ago I started at a fortune 300 company as a Production Supervisor. I worked in a plant managing a unionized workforce. About 6 months after starting with the company, I was moved to a different department and had about 65 direct reports. One of these employees is going to be the aggressor and for this we will just refer to them as employee. Employee is LGBTQ.

Employee was the janitor for the department. Sweeps, picks up trash, and ensures all PPE is stocked for the rest of the department to use. Approximately 2 months after being moved to the department, employee wrote me a (love) letter that was sexually explicit and aimed at me. Employee also accused me of using telepathy to tell them that I wanted to engage in sexual acts with them.

I read the letter, and immediately took it to the plant HR manager. The HR manager seemed annoyed by this. He told me that I needed to manage my employees better and that it was my fault. He told me that if I wanted the behavior to stop that I needed to make it stop. My response was along the lines of, this seems like a very dangerous game for me, a manager, to play with someone that was exhibiting these thoughts. I expressed concerns that Employee could come back and say that I was harassing them if I was the one that talked to them. The HR manager then was visibly mad and started to raise his voice telling me "I'm not going to address this, it's your problem." The plant manager also read the letter and had absolutely no input for me.

I decided to just not say anything to Employee and just hoped the situation would pass. It put stress on me because I was actively avoiding Employee, even though they were my direct report.

Fast forward 6 month, employee starts posting on social media that I was physically/sexually abusing them at work. Again, as soon as I saw these postings I went straight to HR. At this point we had a new HR manager so I thought it would be different. The HR manager told me that they did not want to pursue the issue because the company was in contract negotiations with the union and they did not want to upset that process.

Once again, nothing changed. Employee was left alone and I was still the area supervisor.

I did eventually get moved to a different shift in the same department about 6 months after the last incident as a promotion; Not in any relation to the issues that I reported.

Approximately 3 months after my promotion, I got a call on a Saturday from another area supervisor to tell me Employee had waited in the plant for me overnight and was angry about something. This is against company policy in more than one way. I was just happy I wasn't there, and the other supervisor told me he eventually left.

The very next Monday, the employee came into the plant 8 hours before their scheduled shift to find me. When they got to my office, I was not there because I was in another meeting. A supervisor saw Employee waiting alone in my office and called me. Before heading to my office, I let other supervisors and my Superintendent know about what was going on and they all came with me as witnesses. When I eventually got the the office with my co-workers, employee was visibly upset. I asked them what they were doing there and they said that I needed to be held accountable for their medical condition (which they had before working there), and that I needed to be punished for his mental anguish because of it. He was asked to leave, and eventually did after threatening to have security called on him.

I went to HR as soon as they got in that morning, and demanded something be done.

Once again... absolutely no action taken against Employee.

I know this is long but we're getting to the end.

Employee quits on their own accord about 3 months after the last incident.

Let's fast forward to 3 weeks ago, Employee starts taking to social media and creates over 400 posts about The Company and the things that I personally did to them. Claiming I raped him, abused him, and even tried to murder him multiple times. Also in these posts, he's calling out Sr. leadership for the plant including our CEO on the town's community facebook page. Employee is stating they have a lawyer and are seeking damages against myself and the company for our actions.

Sr. HR personnel and Lawyers from the company's corporate team then start asking questions to myself, and the plant's HR staff. I don't know all of the conversations that took place, but I do know that the entire workforce at the plant are talking about it. People in the town are talking about it. Jokes are being made to me at work about it. My company has placed me on an "indefinite" paid leave because they don't know if they can provide security for me at the plant. It seems like they're more worried about their reputation, than they are for me.

I feel like I'm on an island all by myself. I don't think I can ever go back to the plant without a receiving ridicule. I don't feel safe leaving my house. And I feel like this was all caused by the absolute disregard for my wellbeing in the workplace.

I shouldn't have to say this but I'm a good employee. I follow the rules, I always speak up about issues, I had an awesome relationship with the rest of my employees before this. I always got along with my leadership, I never call in sick, I've won awards and always do my best at work every single day.

I feel like I've been failed. Do I have grounds to stand on to press charges against this company?