Johnny Depp. Steve Helber/Pool via REUTERS Amber Heard wants her legal loss to Johnny Depp to be thrown out because a person ended up on the jury who wasn’t called for jury duty. In a court filing on Monday, Depp’s legal team argued that Heard missed the deadline to call for a mistrial.
Depp’s lawyers also said Heard knew about the juror issue all along but didn’t complain until after losing the case. Johnny Depp’s legal team said the courts should deny Amber Heard’s request to have her legal loss thrown out because she knew all along that the incorrect person had ended up on the jury. Heard’s legal team filed a motion last week arguing that a mistrial should be declared in her defamation lawsuit because a person who had not been called for jury duty had ended up being placed on the Depp v.
Heard trial jury. That jury largely sided with Depp in the case, which focused on allegations Depp was abusive to Heard before and during their 15-month marriage. The jury found that Heard had defamed Depp on all three occasions that he complained about, and ordered her to pay him a total of $15 million in damages.
Heard won one of her three defamation claims against Depp, but was given a much lower damage award of $2 million. In court documents, Heard’s lawyers explained that a jury summons was issued to a house in Fairfax County, Virginia, where two people with the same name lived, one 77 years old and the other 52. The 77-year-old was summoned, but the 52-year-old showed up for jury duty and was placed on the jury.
Amber Heard testifies during her defamation trial with Johnny Depp. ICHAEL REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images”Juror No. 15 was not the individual summoned for jury duty on April 11, 2022, and therefore was not part of the jury panel and could not have properly served on the jury at this trial,” Heard’s lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, said.
“Therefore, a mistrial should be declared and a new trial ordered. “Responding to Heard’s mistrial motion on Monday, Depp’s legal team said her argument shouldn’t be considered in the first place because she missed the deadline to make a complaint about the trial by a full week. Regardless of the lateness of her filing, Depp’s legal team said Heard was in no position to complain about the incorrect juror, saying she knew about the mistake from the beginning of the trial but didn’t raise the issue until losing the case.
“In a rare moment of candor, Ms. Heard admits that she was aware of the purported discrepancy in Juror 15’s birth year from the very start of the trial because ‘Juror 15 . .
. was clearly born later than 1945. ‘”Ms.
Heard therefore concedes she had more than enough time before the trial started, and during the six-week trial, when at least two alternates were available, to investigate and discover the alleged ‘new’ facts,” Depp lawyers argued. Depp’s legal team also said that Heard didn’t prove that the juror who ended up on the jury was unfairly prejudiced against her, and that to call a mistrial would be an “extraordinary remedy” to such a mistake. Representatives for Heard did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on Monday.
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From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/johnny-depp-fights-back-against-amber-heards-push-for-mistrial-2022-7
