Employer is Appealing Unemployment Benefits Award

My question involves unemployment benefits for the state of: oregon
I'll try to be brief. In late February I was called into an office with two upper level witnesses (I was an assistant manager, they were store managers) and told HR had some questions for me. I was then on a speaker phone call with someone I didn't know in Florida, asking me several questions (aggressively!) about comments I may have made at some point in the past. One accusation is that I said we should hire cute girls. The other that I used google or Facebook to try and check out potential hires. I flatly denied these. I'm honestly not certain if I had maybe made a joke in passing in poor humor on the first count, as the comment was supposed to have happened several months prior and I was not told who I was supposed to have said it to or when. I recently inherited a very difficult subordinate, and I believe he was trying to get me fired as he wanted my position and we were not getting along, which I had mentioned to my boss (one of the witnesses) on a few occasions.
Two days later I was fired and my termination notice (which I did not sign but noted my belief that this was malicious and unfounded in the comment section) said there was credible evidence I had made a sexual comment to a customer/candidate. No details, dates, etc.
I filed unemployment, got my employee file etc. after about a month (in which I was contacted by the state to elaborate as they had not heard from my employer) I received my benefits.
My employer is now appealing and I have a hearing in a week.
I am concerned that there may be a witness(es) to my alleged comment that will appear, though I have no frame of reference and honestly can't remember every comment or conversation from months ago.
Why wasn't this addressed when it happened?
Is a comment like that grounds for termination?
My file shows many positive reviews over a 7+ year career with no write ups for anything of this kind and only one written reprimand for a security issue from another location and unrelated.
How do you combat a "he said/she said" situation? Or is it best to say I may have said that as a joke but don't remember doing so...but argue it isn't gross misconduct in any case?
My issues are the passage of time (3-4 months from alleged comment and HR conversation) and that no one ever discussed it or asked for my side at the time, and that, ultimately, this is a subordinate trying to do harm that may be witness or convince another to support him (he had a "henchman" who I have no doubt would lie for him).
The state originally granted on the basis I had denied the allegation and that I had no prior history/warning/incidents.

What's the best way to handle the hearing? Should I submit my positive reviews? I could probably get current employees to witness my character on my behalf in writing or in person but would hate to drag them in...
I also have saved emails with examples of higher management using much worse discriminatory terms ("fag" & "retard" etc) than I am accused of, but I'd like to take the high road and don't know if that's pertinent or admissible anyways.

Thank you in advance for any insights or advice!

Why wasn't this addressed when it happened? No way for us to know but it may not have been brought to HR's attention until then.

Is a comment like that grounds for termination? Yes. Google, at-will employment.

Your positive reviews are not relevant to an unemployment hearing. The only thing that's important is whether or not you made such a comment and if so, whether that is sufficient misconduct to warrant disqualifying you for benefits.

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Quoting cbg

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Why wasn't this addressed when it happened? No way for us to know but it may not have been brought to HR's attention until then.

Is a comment like that grounds for termination? Yes. Google, at-will employment.

Your positive reviews are not relevant to an unemployment hearing. The only thing that's important is whether or not you made such a comment and if so, whether that is sufficient misconduct to warrant disqualifying you for benefits.

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Ok thank you. It seems as though, ironically, the negative emails may be more useful than the positive reviews in establishing the atmosphere and standards of my former employer?

Your only hope is if you have enough evidence from fellow employees to dispute the accustions levied by your employer. You'll have to determine if you can have them testify during your hearing - or write up affidavits on your behalf. In either case - you MUST insist that ALJ admit your evidence in the hearing and address it. Be respectful but don't let the ALJ railroad the hearing without you representing yourself and evidence. An ALJ's will sometimes purposely dismiss or not admit any evidence in the hearing to make it difficult to take the case further. Make sure your evidence is submitted in plenty of time before the hearing - Good Luck !

Just to be clear - the "evidence" the above poster is referring to would be the evidence regarding whether you did or did not make the comments. Evidence of how good your performance was has nothing to do with the matter, is totally irrelevant and does not have to be admitted.

If you don't remember making such a comment, there is no benefit to saying you might have. Just deny it.

That leaves your defense as "I didn't do it" and if the judge concludes that you did do it, the judge can still decide that it isn't misconduct.

For the judge to conclude that you did do it, it's going to take more than the employer saying so. From this, "there was credible evidence I had made a sexual comment to a customer/candidate," the customer/candidate, a third person that actually witnessed the event, or audio/video better be at your hearing.

If the employer attempts to say, "a customer/condidate said," then you need to object that it's hearsay. If they submit a letter from the customer/candidate, you need to object because you can't crossexamine a piece of paper.

Great insights, thank you very much. Still not clear if using vulgar emails is worthwhile or not, or if character witnesses are pointless, but I see that the main object is to make them prove definitively it happened, from a FIRST HAND witness, and that it was misconduct worthy of dismissal if they do.

Hold on just a sec. The question is not, is it misconduct worthy of dismissal. The question is, is it misconduct worthy of denying UI benefits. The UI commission is NOT determining whether the employer was right or wrong to fire you - that is not their jurisdiction and that's not what they determine. ALL they determine is whether or not the reason for termination is sufficient to disqualify you for benefits or not.

It has always been my understanding that if YOU caused your own employment termination due to misconduct versus being "layed-off" - then unemployment benefits are automaitcally denied. At least here in California that's the typical senario. So it goes back to your proof that you didn't make the comments that were against company policy.

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Quoting jvaski

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So it goes back to your proof that you didn't make the comments that were against company policy.

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The claimant doesn't have to prove that it didn't happen. The one making the allegation has that burden, and just because an event is proven doesn't mean the act is misconduct.