Taylor Swift says she felt ‘frantic’ after alleged groping
Suits and counter-suits follow incident during meet-and-greet
During the past year, which Taylor Swift has mostly taken off from music save for one surprising concert, the pop star has (unsurprisingly), continued to make headlines.
First, there was her breakup with Calvin Harris. Then there was her fleeting, Instagram-ready relationship with Tom Hiddleston.
But one dark cloud hung over much of the year: her drawn-out legal battle with Denver country radio DJ David Mueller.
It began in June 2013, when after performing a concert at Denver’s Pepsi Center, Swift attended a meet-and-greet. During that event, which Mueller attended with this girlfriend Shannon Melcher, he allegedly groped Swift while the couple took a photograph with her.
Later in the evening, Swift’s security team approached him and accused him of groping the superstar, Billboard reported.
Mueller was fired from KYGO, the station where he DJ’d, a few days later.
In response, Mueller filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver claiming that he lost his job — and was banned from Swift’s future concerts for the rest of his life — based on false allegations. He claimed that it was, in fact, a co-worker who had groped Swift.
In response to that lawsuit, Swift filed a counter suit in October 2015 in which she demanded a jury trial. If she wins, she claimed that she would donate any proceeds to “charitable organizations dedicated to protecting women from similar acts of sexual assault and personal disregard.”
Billboard obtained a transcript of a video deposition Swift gave in July, in which she offered a more detailed account of the 2013 events.
“Right as the moment came for us to pose for the photo, he took his hand and put it up my dress and grabbed onto my ass cheek and no matter how much I scooted over it was still there,” Swift said. “I remember being frantic, distressed, feeling violated in a way I had never experienced before.”