Can I Get Suspended At Work For Filing A Police Report Against Another Employee? In Florida

A couple days ago I (20s female) was working and an older male employee came up to me in front of a lobby full of customers and about 5-10 other employees who were witnesses to this, and accused me of telling a young female customer whom he was harassing for their phone number that he was gay.

He accused me by yelling very loudly that he would “f*** me in every way to prove he isn’t gay” and that he would “put me in a corner and f*** me to show me he isn’t gay” and many variations of this. I walked him over to the managers office and he proceeded to call me a stupid woman several times to the managers.

I did tell the customer he was gay, because she and I had been chit chatting for awhile about other stuff since she was a girl about my age and we got on well. She told me that she really didn’t want to tell me this, and pleaded with me not to tell a manager as she didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, but that he had been following her around asking for her phone number and made her uncomfortable and I replied that maybe he was trying to sell her something as he was gay and married to a man (we work in sales, and everyone I worked with had always referred to him as the older gay salesman, not in a derogatory way, but just a matter of fact way to describe him and had told me he was married to a man and open about it.)

She was surprised but felt better about him being gay and left. Then a couple days later is when he confronted me, I’m not sure how he knew I told her unless he had talked to her directly as no one else was around when I told her that.

I am a bisexual woman as well so see nothing wrong with being gay. The managers said I called him a slur by saying he is gay even though I myself am gay and never implied that it was a bad thing. They said I am facing being fired or suspended, but that has not happened yet and I have been off for two days after it happened, going back to work tomorrow and he was not suspended from work either.

I was advised by a friend that I should file a police report against him for harassment, but my other friend told me that I will definitely get suspended if I file a police report. Is that legal, or would that be considered retaliation?

My managers have been acting like I am in the wrong for saying he is gay in the first place to the customer, and perhaps I shouldn’t have said that, but I felt that in the moment I was protecting her and helping her feel safe and diffusing the situation as she pleaded with me not to tell a manager. However, I feel like threatening to r*pe me and called me a stupid woman is much much worse than what I did.

I did have to make a statement and now I have a phone call with the regional director of HR tomorrow and am getting super nervous. Any advice is greatly appreciated.