Mrs

My former employer (one satellite office of a national non-profit corporation) has had me arrested for collaborating with the company controller to take forged paychecks. This is completely baseless. They can have no proof, because it never happened. They had me arrested at my workplace (under false pretenses and with no warrant, though I WAS Mirandized -- that was when I thought my friends and the crew from "Scare Tactics" would come jumping in the door.) Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I was taken from my place of work in the back of a squad car, in handcuffs. I was taken to the Richmond Cty, GA jail and put in a holding cell for about 5 hours. I made my bond within the first hour of being processed, but the rest of my processing was held up by "shift change" and the fact that my warrant hadn't even come in yet.
I have checked and double-checked my bank statement and have obviously not even inadvertently deposited any extra money from my former employer. These charges had no basis in fact, and I want to sue my former employer (the corporation), the individual who brought these false charges against me, the Richmond County, GA Sherrif's Department, and possibly the employer who asked me to resign after this incident occurred. I haven't decided yet whether to go quietly or let them fire me.
I believe I have grounds to sue for false arrest, mental anguish, pain and suffering, lost wages, lost employment, lost future opportunities, loss of $400 bond money, unnecessarily harsh punishment at the jail (not being allowed to use the restroom or make a phone call; being held several hours longer than usual; covering the one small window of the holding cell with a brown paper bag so we couldn't even see out).

I want to add that when the investigator who had me arrested had called me a week earlier at my workplace and asked me if I could come downtown and talk to him about an incident at my former place of employment. At first I agreed, then realized that asking for that much time off (the investigator's office was at least a 1/2 hour away from my workplace) since I had only been at my new job for 4 weeks, would probably be a bad idea. Besides, I assumed it had to do with an incident in which my former boss threw a chair at and cursed another employee, or that my former boss had finally been caught for misappropriation of corporate funds (he overpaid his own salary by about $20,000 a year and paid personal bills out of corporate funds -- completely against corporate policy. Copies of proof of this are in a safe place.

However, when the investigator arrived, he said I needed to fill out some paperwork, and handed me a sheet of paper. He fumbled in his briefcase awhile, then said he only had one kind of form with him, but that it was okay because they were all the same anyway. He then handed me a form headed SUSPECT INFORMATION FORM. I looked at him and said, "This says suspect information form." He replied, "I know, I told you they were all the same."

Here's where my naivety came and bit me in the you-know-what. I filled out my personal information (even asking to see his badge before writing down my social security number) and signed my name at the bottom of the paper. I can't tell you what I signed, because I didn't even read it. That's how naive I am, but it's also because I knew I'd done nothing wrong.

When I was finally let out of jail and released to my husband (who had been sitting outside in his truck for at least 3 hours waiting for me to be released) I was an emotional basket case. I'm claustrophic and prone to severe panic attacks, and those five hours almost pushed me right over the edge.

What are my rights? Can I sue now or do I have to wait until these false charges are dropped? How can I clear my good name so this won't haunt me for the rest of my life?

Thank you for any help you can provide.