Pop singer Taylor Swift won the counter-suit against former radio host David Mueller for alleged assault and battery after only four hours of deliberation from the jury.
CNN reports that the jury also found the singer’s mother Andrea Swift and radio promotions director Frank Bell not liable in the civil suit.
Mueller had been accused by Swift of inappropriately groping her during a meet-and-greet in June 2013. Mueller sued Swift, her mother, and Bell in 2015, saying that their accusations interfered with a contract he had made with the Denver radio station KYGO, causing them to fire him after Bell reported the alleged incident to management. Mueller was seeking $257,000 worth of damages in his suit.
The trial began in early August, with four days of testimony in which Mueller testified that he did not touch her inappropriately, only “jostling” her during a photo-op. The singer disputed his characterization testifying, “This was not jostling.” She added, “He did not touch my rib. He did not touch my arm.” Swift emphasized, “He grabbed my bare ass.”
Her attorney, Doug Baldridge, expressed his approval of the suit’s outcome, calling the trial “something that can make a difference.” He said, “It takes people like Taylor, wonderful people like Taylor, who we all know, to stand up and draw these lines.” Baldridge added, “As I said in the closing [argument], that dollar, that single dollar, is of immeasurable value in this ever-going fight to figure out where the lines are, what’s right and what’s wrong.”
Swift praised the decision, thanking her legal team and the judge, vowing to stand up for victims of sexual harassment.
“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,” she said in a statement. “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.”
Taylor Swift was awarded $1 by the jury.