‘Groper’ guns for Swift, says career hit
Denver: A US radio host denied groping pop singer Taylor Swift and accused her of ruining his career as a civil suit brought by him got underway Tuesday.
The 27-year-old Swift has counter-sued, alleging David “Jackson” Mueller groped her during a photo opportunity at a 2013 concert. She looked on with her mother at her side in the Denver courtroom as he took the stand to testify.
“It cost me my career...the thing I love the most,” Mueller said. “It’s despicable, the thing they’ve accused me of.” Mueller did not sue his station KYGO or its parent company Lincoln Financial Media Co. of Colorado, after he was fired June 4, 2013.
Instead, he is seeking $3 million in lost wages and future income from Swift, alleging her complaint led to his unfair dismissal.
He told the court he had sent out two dozen resumes and audio samples, but received no job offers since being terminated.
He had a contract with KYGO for $150,000 a year.
Mueller’s attorney Gabriel McFarland told the eight member jury it was a “he said, she said situation,” and that Swift mistook her client for someone else.
The singer, who alleges he lifted her skirt and fondled her buttocks during the photo op, has said she knew who had assaulted her. Her lawyer, Doug Baldridge, told the jury that four members of Swift’s team were in the room where the photo was taken, and knew immediately something wrong had happened. “It’s not inappropriate touching. It’s an assault,” Baldridge said.
Meanwhile, Mueller told jurors at the civil trial on dueling lawsuits filed by Mueller and Swift that he and the singer-songwriter were trying to reach around one another and “our hands touched and our arms touched” during a photo opportunity he estimated lasted no more than 40 seconds.
Under questioning by his attorney, Mueller said he may have touched Swift’s “rib cage, or rib, or ribs.”
David Mueller told jurors that he and the singer-songwriter were trying to reach around one another and “our hands touched and our arms touched” during a photo opportunity he estimated lasted no more than 40 seconds