My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: South Dakota
I have been harassed at work for months now. I was assaulted by a coworker on drugs and suffered 3 broken bones. Upon returning from paid medical leave the attackers friends have worked tireless to get me fired. The last straw was one trainer who was telling new hires how "I ran my mouth to the wrong person" and got beat down. We share a mutual friend / coworker. I sent her a private message on my day of to her personal account "facebook messenger" and asked her to tell her friend to not gossip about me. I stated "She won't like it if I have to confront her publicly. I'm not taking any shit from her." This friend heard I was telling lies about her so she became vindictive and made copies of the message and distributed at work. The above quote was said to be of a "threatening nature" to the trainer and I was told to sign a Final Warning though there was no initial warning. I refused to sign it as this message was not done on company time or computers and was never intended to replicated and mass distributed. They fired me. I was also furnished with copies of confidential company email with reports of my behavior after returning to work from being assaulted. I smiled one day and a meeting took place stating i was "Smirking at Work" . Another meeting involved my holding my head up and walking tall after being assaulted. This was described as "Acting Untouchable". My supervisor kept the gloves the attacker wore with his name on them for a quarter of a year, leaving them on top of the desk I work from. What can I do to make them pay?

