You cannot win....as you know it would be the same if he was white and you black..probably worse!!! LOL....You did the right thing. You have no need to keep examing yourself. Why do we do this to ourselves? I don't know.Its possible you are still feeling the leftover depression, and it is still showing its ugly head. If you have documented everything and the organization is behind you then you must find a way to let this go and let the chips fall where they may.

Who knows, he may decide to let this go realizing he cannot win at all, and all this worry will be totally unnecessary and unwarranted. You have to find a way to quit obscessing over this.What are you really afraid of? You were not wrong. The organization agrees. The employee did not do his job period.!

You can try and put this whole incident perhaps in perspective. Like "whats the worse that can happen?" Think of this as a new lesson and once you understand it, you can master it because this 'lesson" will come up again. Then you will know what you did was right and there will be no fear.

You did the right and correct thing...My old supervisor used to tell me(I was the assistant supervisor) that we have to get rid of the weeds to let the flowers grow. Your employee was a weed, and taking away from the other employees who were doing THEIR job. After I realized I was hurting my good employees was I able to see that firing one was necessary!

Thinking of you!!!
Dee