BUTT HE HELD ON!
Swift tells court: No quick grab
SINGER TAYLOR SWIFT told jurors she will never, ever forget the “horrifying” encounter.
Testifying in a Denver courtroom Thursday, the pop superstar said ex-radio disc jockey David Mueller reached under her skirt and intentionally grabbed her bare buttock during a backstage meet-and-greet at one of her concerts four years ago.
“He stayed latched onto my bare a-- cheek as I lurched away from him,” Swift said during her hourlong turn on the witness stand.
The “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” singer was unflappable as Mueller’s lawyer tried to poke holes in her version of events.
“You can ask me a million questions about it, and I’m never going to say something different,” she testified. “I never have said anything different.”
Swift, 27, told the eight jurors she initially assumed Mueller mistakenly placed his hand on her rear end, but she quickly determined it was an intentional grope.
“It was a definite grab,” she said. “A very long grab.”
Swift’s testimony — which came on the fourth day of the long-awaited trial — marked the Grammy-winner’s first public examination in the highly publicized case.
She was animated and tenacious as she described the 2013 encounter with Mueller, who has maintained his innocence.
“He did not touch my ribs. He did not touch my arm. He did not touch my hand,” Swift told those gathered in the federal courtroom. “He grabbed my bare a--.”
Swift said there’s no doubt in her mind Mueller, 55, was her assailant.
“I could have picked him out of a line of a thousand,” she said.
The alleged 2013 incident occurred while Swift was conducting a photo session with fans at a concert for her “Red” album at Denver’s Pepsi Center.
The photo she took with Mueller eventually surfaced, showing the former DJ reaching behind Swift’s backside. It does not definitively show direct contact.
When Mueller’s attorney, Gabriel McFarland, asked Swift why the front of her skirt wasn’t ruffled in the picture, the singer fired back.
“Because my a-- is located on the back of my body,” she said sharply.
Swift called the incident traumatic.
“A light switched off in my personality,” she said of her reaction.
“I was looking at the floor. I just wanted him to leave,” she said, recalling she simply thanked Mueller and his girlfriend, Shannon Melcher, in a monotone voice.
Swift said she continued to take photos with others at the event because she didn’t want to ruin their experience.
Asked how she felt when she learned Mueller lost his job over the alleged groping, Swift said it was “a product of his decisions, not mine.”
“I’m not going to let you or your client make me feel like this is my fault,” she told McFarland.
Mueller testified Tuesday that he never touched Swift inappropriately, though he may have had contact with her rib cage.
“It’s a humiliating experience to be accused of something that despicable,” Mueller told the court.
Mueller lost his job as an on-air personality at the Denver radio station KYGO in 2013 shortly after Swift’s allegations emerged. He sued the pop star in 2015 for costing him his role at the country music station. He is seeking $3 million in damages.
Swift countersued, alleging sexual assault, and is seeking just $1.