I’m asking this question because I myself have been falsely accused , and I want to know people’s experiences and thoughts about what they went through. I also want to have a place for people to tell their story. I was falsely accused of sexual harassment and assault by a 17 yo girl in my workplace. This happened 2 years ago, but it’s been on my mind lately. When I was 24, I was a manager at a grocery store where I live. There was also this girl, who was 17, working in a Starbucks in the store. I didn’t really talk to her that much, but when I did she sounded very flirty towards me, but I didn’t reciprocate the same feelings. One of the first conversations she had with me involved her telling me that she was turning 18 in April of the next year. All I said was “good for her” and that was that. Well the events that transpired happened over a couple of encounters, that she later mashed into one. The first encounter we were in the back room with someone else. We were all doing our own thing, but we were also conversating and joking around. She eventually mentioned that she was as tall as me, and starting arguing a bit, just a teenager being a teenager. Well apparently I stood too close to her, I was about a foot away from her, with her back turned. She turned around and yelled at me to back up, I did, but was questioning why she was yelling at me, eventually I just apologized for making her feel uncomfortable. She seemingly accepted it and we went about our day. I understand where she comes from because I do have problems with spatial awareness and will often accidentally get too close to someone when talking to them. The second time it was me and her and another person in the back room. She was getting stuff out of the freezer and asked me to help her, I did. Out of nowhere she asked me if her butt looked nice. I responded, “I’m not answering that, that is inappropriate” she kept asking and I kept saying the same thing. She would not stop and was cornering me with the question. I didn’t know what to do, because I had never experienced a situation like that. I didn’t even realize until I told people, that it was sexual harassment. I eventually just answered something basic just to get out of the situation. This moment still haunts me, bc I was the manager on duty and should’ve reported her, but I was just so uncomfortable and scared of the situation that I guess my fight or flight kicked in, I don’t know for sure. Anyway all I did was give her ammo for what she would do next. I honestly completely forgot about this until one of my days off a month later. I randomly got a text from one of my coworkers stating that she had been going around telling people that I was harassing her and laying my hands on her and blatantly disrespecting her boundaries. I responded that I would never do that. I then immediately messaged my boss about what was happening and he responded, “we’ll talk about this the next day he worked, which would’ve been Monday. I was honestly freaking out. I was at my mom’s house at the time and I had a panic attack and was sobbing I her living room. The next day I walked in to do some shopping. Everyone was giving me looks of disgust and would actively avoid me. I finished shopping , and then went to Starbucks to get a drink, and she was there. This is something I shouldn’t have done, but I tried asking her what I did to make her uncomfortable and trying to apologize to her for making her uncomfortable. The other girl with her told me that, “I should probably leave” so I did that. I told my mom what had happened, and she said that I shouldn’t have done that. At that point I told her I’m just going to quit, because it’s clear that my presence there is unwanted and that people had already made their mind up about me. Later that day I went back in, went up to the manager’s office and typed up a whole note of my side of the story for my boss for him to read when he got there. People also were asking me what had happened and I told them my side of the story, and then went home. Well over the next couple of weeks she kept talking about it and bringing it up. One day I was told by a few people that I was still friends with at the store and at that Starbucks, that she had quit. Before she quit though she admitted to everybody in the kiosk that she had lied about the whole thing. From what those people told me, when I had told my side of the story, cracks started to form in her story, and she started talking about it so much that people were actively telling her to stop talking about it, and she kind of inadvertently ostracized herself from everyone else. That’s when she admitted that she lied and then she quit. Even after she did that, for the longest time I started to believe myself that I was some sort of monster, and that I started to believe the things she was saying. I still have post trauma from that experience, and everytime I see her, I have to go somewhere else to have a panic attack, because seeing her brings back all those emotions that I had from these events. I’ve honestly become very open about it, because there is nothing for me to hide, and I don’t want my story to overshadow other people that actually have been assaulted. I know quite a few people that have been assaulted and harassed and their stories shouldn’t be lessened because of a false accusation like mine. submitted by /u/OoglieBooglie69420
Originally posted by u/OoglieBooglie69420 on r/AskMen