Taylor Swift cried during closing arguments in her groping trial against former radio DJ David Mueller in Denver federal court on Monday, August 14.
Mueller’s attorney Gabe McFarland argued that the June 2013 meet-and-greet photo of his client posing with the “Shake It Off” singer, 27, does not appear to show her reacting as if Mueller had groped her, which is what she testified last week.
“Is that the face of someone who just had a strange man grab her butt?” McFarland, holding up the picture, asked the jury panel as Swift began crying, per an Us Weekly reporter in the courtroom. “That’s the face of someone who has taken a nice photograph.”
The former 98.5 KYGO host’s lawyer then argued that the Grammy winner accused the wrong man. “The defendants want you to believe that Mr. Mueller at 51 years old and with a 20-year career of radio went to a meet-and-greet at request of his employer, entered the photo booth … introduced himself by name … and then immediately after that, and at the precise moment a photo was to be taken, he reached under the skirt of one of the world’s biggest music stars and grabbed her rear end,” McFarland said.
“I don’t know what kind of person grabs women for that matter, but it’s not that guy,” he continued. “It’s not the guy who has spent 20 years in radio and loves his career and profession. … It’s not the guy who, just a few months earlier, landed his dream job working in Denver on-air with his best friend. It’s not the guy whose employment opportunity is paying him more than $150K per year.”
Mueller previously took the stand and testified that he touched Swift’s rib cage, not her butt. She was dismissed as a defendant in his federal lawsuit on Friday, August 11, after the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence. Her mother, Andrea Swift, and radio liaison, Frank Bell, are still listed as defendants in the case.
The singer is seeking $1 in her countersuit, and insists that Mueller was not misidentified. Her countersuit claims she “knows exactly who committed the assault,” adding that a “resolution will demonstrate that Mueller alone was the perpetrator of the humiliating and wrongful conduct targeted against Ms. Swift.”
