Former employer will not pay several former employees, now accuses of "conspiracy"

[Matt9882]

Hello all, new to this forum, though I'm quite well versed with forums in general. I guess I'll hop right to the point:

Preface: I do not lack common sense, and realize that much of what is being claimed against me is unjustified - I'm just worried about how to prove it with little evidence of my existance.

My former employer ran a roughshod operation. I never filled out an I-9, recieved a handbook, did not recieve a time card for several weeks, and when I did recieve SOME forms, they were never submitted. The one check that I got from him never came with a paystub, and he apparently did not submit our witholdings to the state. Shortly after (or perhaps before) I started working there, he out of money and did not tell any of his employees. When the office manager became aware of this, she informed us and we began searching for new jobs. We continued to work there for a period of about 2-3 weeks, hoping that money would come in and all would be solved. When it did not, several of us left - either to new jobs or to unemployment. Several of us found and shared information about how to persue legal action with the local police and labor board. Now we are being threatened with civil and criminal lawsuits of slander, conspiracy, fraud, and harassment.

My questions are as follows:
1. How do I prove I'm due money if I never had a time card with which to clock in? I'd normally say that I could rely on the testimony of the other employees, but literally EVERY last one of them that was there when this happened left, and he's now accusing us of all conspiring against him.
2. Do his accusations have groud to stand on? I'm fairly certain slander(libel, in this case) wouldn't be supported, as there was nothing "published", so to speak. All that happened was an exchange of emails informing everyone of updated status and whom to contact at various law enforcement agencies/boards.
3. If not, isn't he in fact harassing us by threatening unjustified legal action with the motive of pressuring us to drop our cases with the state labor board? I'm positive that he's throwing random things at me because I'm relativley young (23) and he feels he can scare me off. This is all so he will not be shown to have kept bad records and never submitted our taxes, though he withheld from our paychecks.

[Matt9882]

*Update*

I apologize for not posting this in the orignal, but i did not realize that it wasnt there (the orignal post was pretty much a copy-paste from an email I sent to the World Law site).

I had been in contact with my former employer and requested my final check. I was owed 6 days of work. I was paid for two days of work at less then my hired rate, and given a 1099 form - to cover the fact that he never submitted my W-4 or I9. When I called him to ask about this change, I was told to email it to him so he had it in writing. I did so, and was met with a reply that I started working for him on Oct. 13, 2008, when in fact I started on Oct. 6, 2008. I responded to this email and this was his response:

Mathew, I believe you and your co-conspirators have committed enough theft, fraud, false prosecution and slander! Any further contact by you and I will be adding harassment to the litany of complaints being submitted against you and your co-conspirators!

I would simply file in small claims asap and gather up your evidence, witnesses if need be, and get this resolved.

If you are owed money, and it seems you are, the court will see that quickly.

...and your own testimony is valid evidence as well!