by Leanna Tabora, entertainment editor
All the jokes about Taylor Swift suing fans for copyright and unnecessary reasons are no longer considered jokes. It is confirmed Swift is actually being sued by someone, but not for the reasons people joke about.
At a meet and greet in 2013, Colorado DJ David Mueller allegedly “lifted Swift’s skirt and grabbed her bottom” after taking a photo with her and his girlfriend and co-worker Shannon Melcher. Swift then allegedly complained about the incident to her security team afterwards, leading to the two DJs being immediately removed from the meet and greet.
Mueller was fired after the alleged sexual assault. He denied the claims and filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that the accusations were false. The lawsuit does not speak about any accusations.
“The contention that Mr. Mueller lifted up Ms. Swift’s skirt and grabbed her bottom, while standing with his girlfriend, in front of Ms. Swift’s photographer and Ms. Swift’s highly trained security personnel, during a company sponsored, VIP, backstage meet-and-greet, is nonsense, particularly given that Ms. Swift’s skirt is in place and is not being lifted by Mr. Mueller’s hand in the photograph,” the lawsuit said.
The photograph the two DJs took at the meet and greet is unavailable, but Swift’s management describes the photo as “damning.” However, the lawsuit states that Mueller’s hand was not visible behind Swift and that her skirt was in place. The radio station was then given any evidence of the incident afterwards, and made their own decision to fire Mueller. Swift’s management had nothing to do with what happened to his job.
A few months after Mueller sued Swift, she counter-sued him for assault and battery and admitted that she took a photo with Muller and his girlfriend the night of the concert. In the lawsuit, she specifically said that Mueller was the one who inappropriately groped her and not his girlfriend/co-worker. The counter-suit also states that Swift was surprised, upset, offended, and alarmed over the incident and even caused her extreme anxiety since a man she does not know was inappropriately touching her intimate body parts and she had to continue a meet and greet for several hours for 13,000 fans while being distressed about the assault.
“Ms. Swift knows exactly who committed the assault – it was Mueller- and she is not confused in the slightest about whether her long-term business acquaintance, Mr. Haskell, was the culprit,” the lawsuit documents state.
Swift is asking for the court to give Mueller exactly what he deserves for his unlawful actions, and hopefully she will get what she deserves.
“Good for her, honestly. If he was the one who harmed her then he’s at fault completely. I don’t know if suing him was good for her, but suing him is better than her getting sued since he was in the wrong,” junior Stephanie Mantilla said.
