A federal judge has sanctioned a former Denver radio host, who sued Taylor Swift, for destroying multiple electronic devices containing key evidence in the case.
U.S. District Judge William Martinez ruled Wednesday that Swift’s attorneys will be allowed to question David “Jackson” Mueller about a two-hour audio recording he surreptitiously taped during an interview with his boss the day before he was fired. The recording was lost when Mueller later destroyed or threw away four electronic devices.
In this courtroom sketch, pop singer Taylor Swift, left, appears with her lawyer and mother in federal court Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017, in Denver. Swift alleges that radio host David Mueller touched her during a concert meet-and-greet in 2013. The case went to court after Mueller sued Swift, claiming her false accusation cost him his job. He is seeking at least $3 million in damages. Swift countersued, claiming sexual assault.
Jeff Kandyba, The Associated Press
In this sketch provided by courtroom artist Jeff Kandyba, former radio host David Mueller appears in federal court Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017, in Denver. Pop singer Taylor Swift alleges that Mueller touched her during a concert meet-and-greet in 2013. The case went to court after Mueller sued Swift, claiming her false accusation cost him his job. He is seeking at least $3 million in damages. Swift countersued, claiming sexual assault.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Courtroom artist Jeff Kandyba holds his drawing up for media outside the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse on Aug. 8, 2017 in Denver. It is the second day in the trail of Taylor Swift against a Colorado radio personality, David Mueller, over allegations the former disc jockey fondled her four years ago.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Media takes images of drawing from courtroom artist Jeff Kandyba outside the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse on Aug. 8, 2017 in Denver. It is the second day in the trail of Taylor Swift against a Colorado radio personality, David Mueller, over allegations the former disc jockey fondled her four years ago.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Fans line up to go inside the courtroom at Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse on Aug. 8, 2017 in Denver. It is the second day in the trail of Taylor Swift against a Colorado radio personality, David Mueller, over allegations the former disc jockey fondled her four years ago.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
A federal police officer takes a photo of a sign, where people wrote 'Free Tay!' with sticky notes, in an office window across the street from the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse on Aug. 8, 2017 in Denver. It is the second day in the trail of Taylor Swift against a Colorado radio personality, David Mueller, over allegations the former disc jockey fondled her four years ago.
Tree Paine, Taylor Swift's publicist second from the left, walks with associates from the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse after the second day of the Taylor Swift David Mueller trial on Aug. 8, 2017 in Denver.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift's lead attorney Douglas Baldridge, center, walks with associates from the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse after the second day of the Taylor Swift David Mueller trial on Aug. 8, 2017 in Denver.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
People wrote 'Free Tay!' with sticky notes in an office window across the street from the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse on Aug. 8, 2017 in Denver. Jury selection continues, during the second day, in the trail of Taylor Swift against a Colorado radio personality, David Mueller, over allegations the former disc jockey fondled her four years ago.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
A man takes a photo of the sign outside Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse on Aug. 7, 2017 in Denver. Jury selection began in the trial Taylor Swift against a Colorado radio personality, David Mueller, over allegations the former disc jockey fondled her four years ago.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Federal police wait outside the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse as media stands under tents on Aug. 7, 2017 in Denver. Jury selection began in the trail Taylor Swift against a Colorado radio personality, David Mueller, over allegations the former disc jockey fondled her four years ago.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift's publicist Tree Paine, center, walks into the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse on Aug. 7, 2017 in Denver. Jury selection began in the trial of Taylor Swift against Colorado radio personality, David Mueller, over allegations the former disc jockey fondled her four years ago.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Tree Paine, Taylor Swift's publicist center, walks into Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse on Aug. 7, 2017 in Denver. Jury selection began in the trail Taylor Swift against a Colorado radio personality, David Mueller, over allegations the former disc jockey fondled her four years ago.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
A sign directs people who want to attend the civil trial of Taylor Swift and David Mueller at the U.S. District Court in Denver on Aug. 7, 2017.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift plays the Pepsi Center in September.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 at Denver's Pepsi Center.
Mueller sued Swift in September 2015 claiming the music superstar “falsely” accused him of lifting her skirt and groping her before a June 2013 Denver concert. Swift countersued in October 2015 saying Mueller waited “unreasonably” long to file his suit and said “Mueller did not merely brush his hand against Ms. Swift while posing for the photograph: he lifted her skirt and groped her.”
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift plays the Pepsi Center in September.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 during her Red Tour stop in Denver at Pepsi Center.
John Leyba, The Denver Post
Taylor Swift performs to a sold out crowd June 2, 2013 at Denver's Pepsi Center.
Martinez said he could have leveled harsher sanctions against Mueller including striking part of the evidence, if the judge concluded that Mueller intentionally destroyed the devices or couldn’t locate them.
Martinez said the recording is critical evidence because Mueller’s KYGO boss, Robert Call, claims that Mueller changed his story when he confronted him about Swift’s claim that he assaulted her. That was one of the deciding factors that Call relied on in his decision to fire Mueller on June 4, 2013.
“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 cellular phone and transferred it to his laptop and office computer, according to Martinez’ 16-page ruling. Mueller later gave snippets of the two-hour conversation that bolstered his claims to his attorney.
Mueller admits destroying or losing the cellular phone, laptop, iPad and computer for a variety of reasons including that he spilled coffee on his laptop’s keyboard. “It was fried,” Mueller said. But he also acknowledged the recording would have been important evidence in the case.
Although Martinez referred to Mueller’s “serial nature of (his) loss of electronic devices,” the determined the radio host didn’t do so in “bad faith.”
Mueller filed his lawsuit in September 2015 claiming he was fired from his job and banned from Swift concerts for life based on false allegations about the Pepsi Center encounter on June 2, 2013. Mueller had been invited, as part of his then-job at 98.5 KYGO on the “Ryno and Jackson” morning show, to meet Swift backstage.
The document confirms that in the aftermath of his firing Mueller hired a criminal attorney. But Swift didn’t file a criminal complaint about the alleged sexual assault. Shortly thereafter, Mueller hired a civil attorney. Martinez wrote that the recording was relevant to numerous disputed facts and issues in the case and would have been “invaluable to a jury.”
Martinez wrote that Mueller was the only person with the complete audio recording and knew full well that litigation was imminent “since he was pursuing it.”
“He made the decision — inexplicably, in the court’s view — to alter the original evidence and to present his lawyer with only ‘clips’ hand-picked from the underlying evidence,” Martinez wrote.
Because Mueller may seek nearly $3 million in damages, the judge wrote, “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.”
Martinez forbade attorneys from discussing his order in front of the jury. But he wrote that the jury can still weigh the relevance of Mueller destroying critical evidence and only preserving edited clips.
“The court takes an even more dim view of plaintiff’s counsel’s unexplained failure to obtain, listen to, preserve and produce the complete audio file, but that is a separate issue from whether plaintiff should be sanctioned,” Martinez wrote.
