Keith Roysdon

The Star Press

MUNCIE — A Muncie factory worker says he was fired from his job because his employers believed a workplace rumor that he was connected to terror group ISIS — a rumor that even resulted in the man being questioned by a federal investigator.

Tim Simmons, a welder at the Progress Rail train locomotive factory for four years, said he was fired in December after company officials questioned him about a series of plant floor conversations about the terror group and the alleged threat that Simmons “would blow the place up.”

Simmons said that since he was fired, he’s been denied unemployment claims and lost chances to be hired for other jobs when he answered truthfully about the circumstances of his termination at Progress Rail.

The Star Press was able to confirm that Progress Rail and its parent company, Caterpillar, took the threat seriously enough that George Sheridan, a former Delaware County sheriff who also works for the Department of Justice and FBI, questioned Simmons in his home at the time of the firing.

“We have no comment on any investigation,” Sheridan told The Star Press this week.

"We are declining to comment on the matter," a public information officer for the Indiana Homeland Security office said this week in response to questions from The Star Press. "We generally do not comment on personnel matters."

A Progress Rail spokesman contacted by The Star Press offered a similar sentiment. "As a company practice, we do not comment on personnel matters," Barbara Cox said.

Simmons said he couldn’t believe the reason cited for his firing: Conversations about ISIS that he said were started by a co-worker during break time.

“It was all shop talk,” Simmons said. “I mean, I don’t even own a handgun.”

In a world rocked by terror attacks in public places, what’s still unclear is how much of a role the very mention of terror groups and bombings play in workplace tensions — and terminations.

'You're probably in with them'

ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, is a global jihadist terror group that has claimed responsibility for murderous attacks around the world, including the Paris attacks in November that killed more than 120 people.

Simmons said he was aware of ISIS and its role in worldwide terror last September, when he said a co-worker at the Cowan Road plant approached him during a cigarette break and asked about ISIS.

"He was like, 'Man, have you seen what's going on?'" Simmons said, adding that the coworker — who The Star Press attempted to contact through a Facebook message — claimed that ISIS had training camps in Indiana.

"He started smiling and laughing and said, 'Tim, you're probably in with them,'" Simmons said. "I look at him and say, 'OK, what if I am?' We all started laughing and joking."

Simmons said the co-worker continued to talk to Simmons and other welders about ISIS between September and December. Simmons said he also declined to help the co-worker move, saying that he didn't want to get his new pickup truck scratched.

On Dec. 14, Simmons said, he was called into the human resources office at Progress Rail.

"When they had me in the office, (they) asked, 'Did you say you were in with (ISIS)?'" Simmons said. "'Did you say anything about blowing up the building?' I said no."

Simmons said he was told that someone had sent a text message to a plant official "saying I was ISIS and I was going to blow the building up. I said, 'You're kidding me.'"

He was escorted from Progress Rail that day and was told he would be contacted by the FBI.

Questions from an investigator

"I'm looking out my window, waiting for somebody to show up at my house," Simmons said. "I hear a car door, I look out. This made me nervous."

On Dec. 16, Sheridan went to the northside Muncie house where Simmons and his wife, Paula, live.

Simmons said Sheridan, a two-term Delaware County sheriff who has long been known by The Star Press to work with the Department of Justice, introduced himself and made small talk about Simmons' Harley-Davidson shirt and admired Simmons' motorcycle, parked in his garage.

"He asked me if I had Facebook or Twitter and he took all my passwords and user IDs," Simmons said. "He asked if I had a passport, if I had ever flown, if we've been on vacation this year, if I thought about building a pipe bomb, do I have electrical certifications."

Simmons said he showed Sheridan around his house and maintained that Sheridan quickly determined there was nothing suspicious there.

Later that night, Simmons said, he was contacted by a Progress Rail representative and told that he had been fired.

"I told (the HR officer) that they found nothing, that they cleared me," Simmons said. "She said, 'Due to our internal investigation, you are terminated.'"

"After almost four years out there," he said. "I never clocked in a minute late. I worked all the overtime they needed when they couldn't get anyone else to do it."

When The Star Press asked Simmons if there was any other reason Progress Rail might have terminated him, he said, "Nothing."

Less than two weeks before Simmons was terminated by Progress Rail, 14 people were killed and 22 were seriously injuring during a mass shooting at a public health department gathering in San Bernardino, California. One of the suspected shooters was a health department employee and there's been debate about whether the attack was an act of terror, workplace violence or both.

Long before the San Bernardino shootings, however, many corporations, schools and governments had a zero tolerance policy toward speech in the workplace that could be perceived as threatening.

"Workplace violence is violence or the threat of violence against workers," according to a workplace violence guide published online by the North Carolina Department of Labor. "It can occur at or outside the workplace and can range from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and homicide, one of the leading causes of job-related deaths. However it manifests itself, workplace violence is a growing concern for employers and employees nationwide."

'You get labeled'

"This reminds me of the Red Scare in the 1950s," said Bryan Byers, a professor of criminal justice at Ball State University, when told by The Star Press about Simmons' account.

During the Red Scare in the 1950s, individuals were sometimes falsely identified as Communists by co-workers, employers or government authorities.

"If you talk about certain things, you get labeled," Byers said. "You're guilty because of this external fear.

"As long as he didn't make any overt threats or statements about what he might do, there's nothing wrong with talking about ISIS. We have a First Amendment in this country."

This week, Simmons said he was informed by an Indiana Workforce Development official that he had been denied unemployment "because of a witness statement."

Simmons told The Star Press he's never been given any paperwork detailing the reasons he was fired by Progress Rail.

In the meantime, the 44-year-old, who moved to Muncie from Farmland, has been unable to get a new job because he answers fully when asked why he was fired from Progress Rail.

"I put in applications to places I know are hiring," Simmons said. "They ask why I was fired and I tell them because of a rumor. When they ask, I tell them it was about ISIS."

"This one welding shop in Muncie (where Simmons applied), the lady patted her hip and said, 'Just to let you know, I'm packing heat.' I said, 'Are you kidding?'"

Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.