Swift alleges that a DJ in Colorado lifted her skirt and grabbed her butt during a VIP photo op in 2013. The DJ claims her accusations are false and cost him his career. Now a jury will decide.

Taylor Swift is set to take the stand to face the radio DJ she alleges reached under her skirt in 2013 and grabbed her butt backstage during a photo op. Jury selection begins Monday.

The case ignited in 2015, when DJ David "Jackson" Mueller sued Swift, blaming her for damaging his reputation and for the loss of his $150,000-a-year job at radio station KYGO after she brought the groping allegations to his employer. Mueller — who cohosted a show called Ryno and Jackson — maintains he was wrongfully accused.

She reported the alleged groping to her tour manager and security team. Mueller was then tracked down, kicked out of the event, and banned from Swift’s shows for life. KYGO then fired Mueller, citing the morality clause in his contract, after executives determined he had lied about the incident and changed his story, according to court documents.

When Mueller filed his lawsuit blaming her for his financial woes, she fired back with her own countersuit, alleging assault and battery. In court documents, the singer said she was “shocked and distressed by Mueller’s harmful and offensive physical conduct.”

The trial will be a rare case of a global superstar taking the stand. After two years of litigation, Swift has said in court documents that she wants to "serve as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts."

Swift said in court documents that any money she wins will be donated to nonprofits that are “dedicated to protecting women from similar acts of sexual assault and personal disregard.”

For Mueller, the stakes are also high, with his reputation and future career on the line. In court documents, Mueller said he spent 20 years building a résumé in radio interviewing hundreds of celebrities, including Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, and Jennifer Lopez. He claims all of that was ruined as a result of Swift’s accusations and is seeking nearly $3 million in damages.

At least 17 witnesses, including Swift and Mueller, are expected to take the stand. Swift is expected to testify that Mueller lifted up her skirt and grabbed her bare butt.

In court documents, she also described how the alleged encounter caused her to suffer extreme anxiety.

Taylor also argued that she had never previously met Mueller and had no reason to accuse him of touching her inappropriately. Swift’s mother, Andrea, is expected to testify about her daughter’s reaction to the alleged assault and discuss why they went to radio station execs and not the police, a move some celebs take to avoid court proceedings.

Swift's team plans to bring a professor of women’s studies to discuss how the singer’s reaction to the alleged groping is consistent with someone who has been sexually assaulted.

Burden of proof for jurors in a civil trial does not have to meet the same beyond-a-reasonable-doubt threshold. Federal civil cases have a much lower threshold of proof in that the juries must only be convinced by a “preponderance of the evidence” in order for one side to prevail. Burden of proof equates to just over 50%. The 12-member jury, however, must be unanimous in their decision on each count.

Swift’s attorneys point to a photo of Mueller with a grin on his face and his hand behind the singer’s butt as “damning” proof.

In his lawsuit, Mueller's attorneys also pointed out that the circumstances of how the photo unfolded would make proving the alleged groping practically impossible.

"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 states.

Of equal importance will be the testimony of other eyewitnesses. Mueller told the court he spilled coffee on, and eventually lost, a laptop that allegedly contained a 2 hour audio file of a phone call he recorded with his employers the day after he was informed of Swift’s allegations. Mueller did keep a copy of the audio file on an external hard drive, but he later reported that even that device had “stopped working.”

The judge overseeing the case said he also found it troubling that Mueller “threw out” his cell phone, which may have been used to record the call, months after filing his lawsuit. Instead of issuing sanctions against Mueller for the lost evidence, the judge will allow Swift’s team to question Mueller on the stand about what happened to the electronic devices. “When evidence goes missing, like a laptop or a phone, and it’s not excusable, it leads to a negative inference ... it certainly casts a black mark on their credibility.”

In court documents, Mueller said he voluntarily passed a polygraph in which he denied inappropriate contact with Swift, but at the end of the day, “it is his word against hers,”. “I would not want to be on trial against Taylor Swift or any other star. Stars win. She is ‘America’s Sweetheart.’”

Muller will also have to convince the jury of why Swift would make up the allegation. Bolstering Swift’s case is her history of fighting the fight, be it corporate or on behalf of other female performers. She stood up to Apple, donated $250,000 to Kesha Sebert's legal defense. The Denver Post has already published an op-ed commending Swift for her “righteous fight against her alleged groper.”

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