My question involves criminal law for the state of: FLORIDA
There is a serious issue plaguing my family and we are in desperate need of help! PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS. WE ARE IN A SERIOUS CRISIS AND I BELIEVE ALL THESE DETAILS ARE IMPORTANT IN HELPING US GET OUT OF THIS HELL. ANY HELP WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED FOR WE ARE DESPERATE:
My mother has been a loyal walmart employee for 10 years. She was recently promoted and moved to a store in pembroke pines, Fl. About a month ago, her husband passed away, and due to the obvious depression and emotional turmoil that follows, she took a 3 month leave of absence (paid). At first she was denied the leave, so she had to provide a doctor's note. STILL the store manager purposely failed to give the note to HR, and so my mother had to call the manager from the previous store to find out what was going on. After investigating, he was finally able to get the documents to the HR rep. and my mom was granted her leave, very much against the new store manager's wishes.
One month has passed, and all of a sudden the store manager who had fought my mom's request for the leave of absence is now pressing charges against my mom for "fraudulent refunds." she claims that my mom and her previous manager (the same person who helped the medical documents to the HR rep.) were associates in the crime. that he purchased ink cartridges from another store, and then used my mom to return them to walmart for gift cards.
according to my mom, (a cashier at the time), this is simply impossible. if an item was not purchased at walmart, the item WILL NOT scan, and the computer will tell you it's not from that company. If it IS from the company, once scanned for refund, it tells you the item's name and its price, which is exactly what happened as she scanned the ink cartridges. even if somehow the ink was not purchased at that store, my mom would have no way of knowing since the computer accepted the bar codes without issues. it's walmart policy to refund an item with or without receipt as long as it was purchased at any of the walmart stores.
my mother is a single mom with 4 kids who are still dependent on her. Her husband just passed away, and now with these charges, she will lose her job, regardless of her innocence. the manager who pressed the charges gave her two options: resign or she'd open the investigation. since my mom and her previous manager have nothing to hide they agreed to go ahead with the investigation.
HERE IS MY QUESTION: it is my belief that the manager who pressed charges did so simply out of a grudge. i believe she is using her position to get my mom fired for going against her wishes and taking the much and obviously needed leave of absence. even before the death, she had been giving my mom a hard time day after day. ISN'T THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO IN ORDER TO TURN THIS WHOLE ISSUE AROUND FOR OUR BENEFIT? it seems ridiculously unjust that my mom should lose her job just like that in a time of depression and crisis simply because of a false accusation. i feel that walmart (specifically the store manager who pressed charges) could be doing something extremely illegal by falsely accusing my mom in order to get her fired. her argument is deeply flawed since items not purchased at walmart simply cannot be returned to walmart, therefore her accusations are not even feasible. yet here we are, suffering. ISN'T THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO TO AVOID HOMELESSNESS AND UNEMPLOYMENT??????????????? can't we retaliate in any way?

