Taylor Swift: Judge sanctions radio host accused of sexually assaulting pop star for 'destroying evidence'
David Mueller is suing the pop star over claims he was fired from his job as a radio host after she accused him of groping her
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Your support makes all the difference.A federal judge has sanctioned a former radio host who was accused by Taylor Swift of groping her.
The alleged incident took place before her concert at Denver’s Pepsi Center in June 2013.
In her deposition, the pop star described feeling "frantic, distressed and violated" after the alleged incident.
David Mueller sued Swift in October 2015, claiming he was fired from his job at 98.5 KYGO and banned from Swift concerts for life as a result of the accusation.
She counter-sued for sexual assault and battery, saying Mueller waited “unreasonably” long to file his suit.
Swift’s suit also claimed that he “did not merely brush his hand" against the singer while they were posing for the photograph: "He lifted her skirt and groped her."
US District Judge William Martinez ruled that Swift’s attorneys will be allowed to question Mueller about a two-hour recording he made during an interview with his boss, Robert Call, made the day before he was fired.
The Denver Post reports that the recording was lost when Mueller destroyed or threw away four electronic devices.
The recordings were said to be critical evidence because Call claims that Mueller changed his story when he was confronted about the pop star's claim.
“Call explained that one reason for Plaintiff’s termination was because Call perceived Plaintiff had ‘changed his story that it couldn't have occurred, then that it was incidental,’” Martinez wrote.
Mueller recorded the conversation on his phone and later transferred it to his laptop and office computer, according to the judge’s 16-page ruling.
Mueller has admitted destroying or losing the devices for various reasons, including that he spilled coffee on his laptop keyboard.
Martinez said he could have given harsher sanctions against Mueller if he concluded that he had intentionally destroyed the devices.
The judge wrote that, because Mueller is seeking nearly $3 million (£2.31m) in damages: "It is very hard to understand how he spent so little time and effort to preserve the very evidence which – one might think – could have helped him to prove his claims, and why he evidently responded with nonchalance when that evidence was lost."
The trial is scheduled to begin on 7 August.