A Virginia judge on Wednesday rejected actress Amber Heard’s demand for a new trial in the defamation case she lost to her former husband Johnny Depp.
Heard’s lawyers had asked Judge Penney Azcarate to set aside the jury verdict awarding $10 million to Depp and declare a mistrial, but the judge denied the request.
Heard had asked for a new trial because one of the seven jurors was not the man summoned for jury service but his son in a case of mistaken identity.
“There is no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing,” Azcarate said, and the juror ̶0;met the statutory requirements for service.”
“The juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated, and reached a verdict,” the judge said.
The jury in June found Depp and Heard liable for defamation — but sided more strongly with the ̶0;Pirates of the Caribbean” star following an intense six-week trial riding on bitterly contested allegations of domestic abuse.
The case, live-streamed to millions, featured lurid and intimate details about the Hollywood celebrities’ private lives.
The jury awarded $10 million in damages to Depp after finding that a 2018 newspaper article penned by Heard on her experience of ̶0;sexual violence” was defamatory.
The 59-year-old Depp sued Heard over a Washington Post op-ed in which she did not name him, but described herself as a ̶0;public figure representing domestic abuse.”
The 36-year-old Heard, who had counter-sued, was awarded $2 million.
