Defamation of Character Question?
I work in drug and alcohol counseling services as part of county human services. One of my duties is to assist with aftercare for the county jail. We have a religous based outreach group in our area which does work in the jail as well with ex-inmate. A new client of mine asked if she could continue her counseling (mandated by parole) with one of the leaders of this group (no formal education or licensure, not an actual counseling practice). The next week she came back saying that because she was not able to make one of the bible studies because of child care issues this individual went to my client's parole officer and employer stating that she had relapsed, when in fact she did not. I did some checking up and this org has some fairly extremist attitudes. Would this be a valid defamation issue, no one is looking at prosecuting but I would like her to have something to hold over this individual's head incase it happens again.
For the record I have tested her myself (not that this is definitive), as well as already contacted her parole officer.
Thank you all for the input so far, but please limit this to issues of legal applicability; "defamation, slander, opinion, etc?" I do not need assistance on how to do my job, just a informal legal opinion.