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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Amber Heard attorney has alleged that one of the jurors in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial served improperly and is seeking the court to declare a mistrial and order a new trial, The Associated Press reports.
“Newly
discovered facts” show Juror No. 15 in the six-week trial was not the
individual summoned in April to serve in the case, Heard’s attorney wrote in a
five-page memo filed Friday in Virginia’s Fairfax Circuit Court, according to
The Associated Press.
The filling
alleges that Juror No. 15 was a younger individual with the same last name who
“apparently” lives at the same address, The Associated Press reported.
“As the
Court no doubt agrees, it is deeply troubling for an individual not summoned
for jury duty nonetheless to appear for jury duty and serve on a jury,
especially in a case such as this,” the filing said.
Depp sued his ex-wife over a December 2018 op-ed Heard wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse,” the website noted.
The
testimony focused mostly on whether Heard had been physically and sexually
abused as she had claimed. Depp accused his ex-wife of being the abuser, adding
that he never hit her.
The jury
ruled in Depp’s favor on all three of his claims relating to specific
statements in the 2018 article.
The jury
decided Depp should receive $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million
in punitive damages but the judge reduced the punitive damages award to $359,
000 under a state cap, The Associated Press reports.
Deadline
reported the filling which it posted online.
The memo
requested that the court throw out the verdict against Amber Heard, emphasizing
that the jurors may not have been properly vetted by the court.
According to
The Associated Press, a “jury panel list” in the case included a person who
would have been 77 at the time of the trial. Voter registration information
lists two individuals with the same last name “apparently” residing at the same
address, said the filling, The Associated Press reported.
“The
individual who appeared for jury duty with this name was obviously the younger
one. Thus, the 52-year-old ... sitting on the jury for six weeks was never
summoned for jury duty on April 11,” violating Heard’s due process rights, the
filing said.