Amber Heard's request for a retrial after her defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp has been denied by a judge.
Heard was seeking to have the verdict of the trial thrown out based on ‘inconsistent verdicts’, among other arguments from her team.
Heard's legal team submitted a 48-page filing earlier this month, in which attorney Elaine Bredehoft claimed Depp’s team ‘proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms Heard’s statements were actually false’, and adding that, due to ‘inconsistent verdicts’, the judgement should be set aside or a new trial ordered.
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Heard's team also argued that one of the jurors, known as Juror 15, was not actually summoned for jury duty. It was claimed a 77-year-old man received the summons, but it was his son, who has the same name and address, who attended the trial. Heard's team argued a case of mistaken identity was grounds for mistrial, The Guardian reports.
Lawyers for the Heard wrote in their filing: "The court cannot assume, as Mr Depp asks it to, that Juror 15’s apparently improper service was an innocent mistake. It could have been an intentional attempt to serve on the jury of a high-profile case."
However, in a written order today, 13 July, Judge Penney Azcarate rejected all claims made by Heard and her team, and said the issue surrounding Juror 15 was irrelevant.
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"The juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated, and reached a verdict," Azcarate said. "The only evidence before this court is that this juror and all jurors followed their oaths, the court’s instructions, and orders. This court is bound by the competent decision of the jury."
Heard could still appeal the decision, however, by going to the Virginia court of appeals.
The trial between Heard and ex-husband Johnny Depp revolved around an op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 about being a public figure representing domestic abuse.
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While Depp was not named in the article, he claimed it implied he abused her during their marriage and was therefore defamatory.
At the conclusion of the trial Heard was ordered to pay around $10 million in damages to Depp, while he was order to pay $2 million to her.
In response to Heard's request for a mistrial, Depp's legal team said lawyers for Heard 'had more than enough time' to investigate the jurors, and that the individual who ended up on the jury when another had been summoned was still 'qualified to serve as a juror'. They also argued that the request for a mistrial came on 8 July, seven days after the court appointed deadline to dispute the verdict.
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Charlie Cocksedge