I'd like to petition the peanut gallery here. I moved to Denver for a job with a startup. I was with the company for about 4 months as an unpaid partner. I agreed to help get the company off the ground with the understanding I would be a owner/manager type. Didn't have a contract, did everything on a handshake. Didn't take long for me to figure out the owner was a complete and total dirtbag. Fraud, promises that weren't kept, did some stuff to ruin competitors business, some safety issues and the guy was a total psycho. Would fly off the handle at the smallest little thing. Guy has a history of this crap in different states with different companies. Was kicked out of the last place for pulling this crap and apparently stole stuff to start his new company.
Things got pretty bad so I resigned, later I get some threatening emails(within minutes). Nothing too violent, just "claims" he knows something about my past. I don't have anything in my past to be worried about so I blow him off. I am a Vet and hold a clearance.
A few weeks go by and I am interviewing with one of his competitors. The general manager of the place calls me after our conversation and says, you need to be aware that your former boss is calling around to local companies and telling them to watch out for me. "I have a criminal background and tried to hide it so he fired me". Also said I lied about other stuff on my resume but wasn't specific about what. Says he knows the guy is full of crap and offered to be a witness if I wanted to press charges or sue. He said my former "boss" did this to a couple of other people who worked for him or were competitors of his company and tried to ruin their lives just out of spite. The GM told me of some others who I should talked to about what is being said and they confirmed that he had called them and said similar things. In some cases he was specific about a certain type of crime that could really ruin my life if anyone took it as the truth. Couple of people at the company have completely avoided me over what is being said.
None of it is true, so I called the police, they said it was a civil matter. Because of the seriousness of the specific crimes he is alleging I pushed hard on the police until the DA told me to basically frack off.
While trying to get the police to do something, I am calling lawyers like mad. I've probably spoken with over 30 who will not touch the case. They all say, I have no damages and even if I did the guy has no money to go after. Apparently one can say anything they want about another, unless they put it in writing it isn't a crime. As another thread said "Sometimes the 1st amendment sucks".
So the legal system has completely failed me, no lawyer will touch this without 30K up front, no job, no one wants to hire me and get involved in the drama. It's a small industry so this sort of stuff gets around.
What do you guys think I should do. Violence is out of the question because I would be the primary suspect. I'd go to the news with this but I don't want to repeat what is being said. I wouldn't normally post something like this but I am stuck.