Taylor Swift groping trial: What you need to know
New court documents reveal superstar Taylor Swift will testify in court this summer against radio DJ David Mueller. A breakdown of what you need to know before the trial starts
The jury has reached a verdict in Taylor Swift’s groping trial. After about three hours of deliberation, the jury ruled in favor of Swift, granting her a symbolic $1.
The decision by the six-woman, two-man jury was read Monday in U.S. court in Denver. Per the ruling, the jury unanimously agreed that former DJ David Mueller was not entitled to compensation that he sought in his own lawsuit and vindicated Swift's claims that he groped her.
"I want to thank Judge William J. Martinez and the jury for their careful consideration, my attorneys Doug Baldridge, Danielle Foley, Jay Schaudies and Katie Wright for fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault, and especially anyone who offered their support throughout this four-year ordeal and two-year long trial process," Swift said in a statement. "I acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this. My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard. Therefore, I will be making donations in the near future to multiple organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves."
The verdict brings an end to the trial, which was focused on a 2013 meet-and-greet in which Swift alleged that Mueller groped her during a photo opportunity by putting his hand up her skirt and on her bare backside. After being fired from his radio station, Mueller sued Swift alleging that the pop star, her mother and her radio liaison, Frank Bell, were deliberately trying to destroy his career. Swift then countersued.
In the dueling lawsuits from Swift and Mueller, a federal judge ruled Friday that Mueller failed to prove that the pop star personally set out to have him fired after the 2013 photo op.
MORE: Taylor Swift's alleged groping photo
Jurors weighed his identical allegations against Andrea Swift and Bell as well as Swift's countersuit. In her countersuit, Swift sought a symbolic $1. She testified Mueller grabbed her “bare ass.” The singer said she wanted to serve as an example to other women who have been assaulted. Per the ruling, neither Andrea nor Bell will be forced to pay.
"Will aggressors like David Mueller be allowed to victimize their victims?" Swift’s lawyer Douglas Baldridge asked jurors before encouraging them to find the former DJ guilty. "Return a verdict for a single dollar, a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation."
Mueller had sued Swift after he says her team reported the accusations to his bosses at a country music station, which ultimately resulted in his termination.
During closing arguments from Mueller’s lawyer, Gabriel McFarland, on Monday, the “Bad Blood” singer began crying in court.
“Look at Ms. Swift’s face. Is that the face of someone who’s in shock, who is upset?" McFarland said.
From the start, Swift's side portrayed the encounter as a clear case of sexual assault, even though they never reported it to police. Her mother tearfully testified that she asked Bell to reach out to Mueller's employers at country station KYGO-FM instead because they wanted to handle the matter quietly and avoid exposing the singer-songwriter to publicity.
Bell contacted a station vice president and asked for an investigation of Mueller's conduct. He also sent the station executive a photo taken of Swift, Mueller and Mueller's then-girlfriend at the meet-and-greet.
In a fiery hourlong stint on the witness stand last week, Swift blasted a low-key characterization by Mueller's attorney, Gabriel McFarland, of what happened. While Mueller testified he never grabbed Swift, she insisted she was groped.
"He stayed attached to my bare ass-cheek as I lurched away from him," Swift testified.
"It was a definite grab. A very long grab," she added.
Mueller emphatically denied reaching under the pop star's skirt or otherwise touching her inappropriately, insisting he touched only her ribs and may have brushed the outside of her skirt as they awkwardly posed for the picture.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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