Boss Told Me They’d Subponea Me (+ More)

LOCATION: Pennsylvania.

Apologies for the burner. I’m stuck in a really difficult situation, and I’ve been crying non-stop and super stressed out because I am unsure of what to do.

An ex-coworker of mine was recently terminated by the privately-owned daycare I work for. They then proceeded to message multiple people, parents and fellow staff included, saying negative things about our boss and the company. There are several other things I could detail, but I’ll skip all that and say it was bad for our school. The main takeaway is: my boss is suing them.

I was close with this coworker, and they and I frequently vented back and forth to each other. While the venting aspect of it was not public, the fact that we texted was something my boss was aware of. Post-termination, we both texted and they would often say negative things about our boss in particular. I would usually try to console them rather than admonish our boss directly, but there was one or two times I said I didn‘t care much about my boss either. More on that later.

My boss asked me to turn over screenshots of only her side of the conversation, and that I was free to redact anything I said. They even showed me how to do It — it only had to contain images of things my coworker said specifically about our school. This, they said, is a must, and I would otherwise be subpoenaed.

I originally agreed to turning things over, but now I am unsure, especially because of a mistake I made — while planning to show them to my boss, I deleted one or two text messages from my own side that contained negative commentary about our boss. It wasn’t threatening or policy violating in the least, but it was rude (I think I said “I couldn’t give two shits about so-and-so.”) I wasn’t thinking at the time and I’m a bit panicked now that I actually realized what I’ve done, because I know tampering with anything like that is a serious issue. I haven’t made the move to recover it yet because I was unsure of what to do.

If it helps with the above at all, I deleted it via iPhone‘s message delete feature.

Additionally, within those post-termination texts, my coworker asked me, in the midst of getting her things together to take home to her, to give her an envelope of money a parent had donated to the school containing a small sum of cash. While I initially did not reject her outright (I have a terrible habit of being unable to say no to people) I tried to say I was unable to get it for her. When she persisted in asking me for said envelope, I outright refused her and said I would not feel comfortable taking the parent’s money. The money / envelope is still in the classroom as we speak.

So, I have twofold (maybe threefold) question:

1. Should I present the screenshots to them, or should I wait to be subpoenaed? What is the best course of action for me right now? I do not entirely mind and said I’d cooperate, but I really would like this to be where my involvement ends.
2. Would there be any sort of legal reprecussions for not immediately telling her ‘no’ on the envelope? What of the deletion of the text messages?

I am extremely frightened and apologize sincerely if any of this is incoherent, as law cases such as these are a touchy subject for me and a bit of source of trauma as well. I appreciate any and all advice in advance.

EDIT: To clarify, I am still employed here. This is all recent as well, and my boss told me they would subpoena me if I did not turn over any texts yesterday afternoon.