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Alleged Groper Can Attend|Taylor Swift’s Deposition

DENVER (CN) - The disc jockey Taylor Swift accused of groping her can attend the singer's deposition despite Swift's request that he be barred from it, a federal judge ruled.

Former country music disc jockey David Mueller was fired from Denver-based radio station KYGO after Swift accused him of groping her bottom. She claimed it happened while Mueller was posing for a photo with her and his girlfriend before Swift's June 2013 show at the Pepsi Center.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kristen Mix denied Swift's request to prohibit Mueller from the deposition during a telephonic discovery hearing on July 14.

Mix also denied Swift's request that the deposition not be taped, though the judge did restrict aspects of the taping process.

"Only an original videotape will be made of Ms. Swift's deposition," Mix's order states. "The original videotape shall remain in the custody of Mr. Jesse Schaudies, Ms. Swift's business manager. Plaintiff's counsel must be provided reasonable access to the videotape."

Mueller sued Swift in June 2015 for two years of lost pay after KYGO canceled his two-year contract.

Swift countersued Mueller for assault and battery that October.

"Ms. Swift reported that Mueller had groped a highly intimate part of her body without her expecting it or consenting to it," Swift's counterclaim states. "Ms. Swift was forced to begin a several-hour long concert in front of 13,000 fans still distressed that she had been so inappropriately touched."

Mueller added two counts of slander to his claims against the pop star in March this year, claiming her accusations had damaged his employment prospects.

He denies that he touched Swift inappropriately, and claims that KYGO program director Eddie Haskell told him after the meet-and-greet with Swift that he, Haskell, had put his "hands on her bottom" and that he believed Swift "must wear bicycle shorts under her stage outfits."

"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," Mueller's complaint states.

Swift's counterclaim insists Mueller was the perpetrator.

"She is not confused in the slightest about whether her long-term business acquaintance, Mr. Haskell, was the culprit," the counterclaim states.

Mueller is represented by Gabriel McFarland with McFarland & Evans, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mix extended the discovery deadline granting both parties an extra week to exchange expert disclosures, before July 28.

Swift's attorney, Courtney Sullivan with Venable Law, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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