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Artist News Legal
Radio DJ has case against Taylor Swift cut down before jury deliberations
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 14 August 2017
The US judge overseeing the Taylor Swift grope case threw out most of the claims made against the pop star on Friday after a week of testimonies.
Swift accuses former radio DJ David Mueller of groping her during a meet and greet at a concert in Detroit in 2013. It was Mueller who first went legal, after he lost his radio job shortly after the alleged incident with Swift. He claimed he’d been sacked because of the allegations, and sued the singer and her team for defamation. She then responded by suing him for assault and battery.
As previously reported, both Swift and her mother took to the witness stand last week and stood firm with their claims that, while having his photo taken with the musician, Mueller reached under Swift’s skirt and “grabbed her ass”. The former DJ was less forthright in his earlier testimony, while his ex-girlfriend – who was with Mueller at the time of the alleged incident – said she hadn’t seen any inappropriate touching, but then she was facing forward having her photo taken at the time and “I don’t have eyes in the back of my head”.
According to the Associated Press, the court also heard about tensions between Mueller and his bosses at radio station KYGO that pre-dated the Swift incident. Mueller and his then co-host had had disagreements over plans to introduce a female co-presenter onto their apparently flagging show, with the existing presenters wanting to recruit someone from outside the radio industry, while management wanted an experienced DJ.
On Friday, after Swift’s legal team had announced they weren’t planning on presenting any witnesses in addition to those already called by the plaintiff’s side, judge William Martinez said that Mueller’s team had not presented sufficient evidence that Swift had set out to get the DJ fired. Various elements of his lawsuit were dismissed by the judge, though the DJ’s claim that some of Swift’s management team were liable for “tortious interference with contracts” will still go before the jury. As will Swift’s allegations of assault.
Consideration of those remaining matters will continue in court later today. Though the conclusion of Friday’s proceedings definitely swung in Swift’s favour.
