Amber Heard asks judge to throw out verdict in the Depp defamation trial and investigate a juror.This comes after the court ay her to pay around $10.35 million. Here Amber Heard’s lawyers have asked a judge to throw out the $10.35 million verdicts against her in the defamation case filed by ex-husband Johnny Depp, arguing that the verdict was not supported by the evidence and that one of the jurors may not have been properly vetted by the court.
In post-trial motions filed on Friday Heard’s attorneys argue that the jury’s June 1 verdict that included compensatory damages of 10 million, as well as five million dollars in punitive damage for Depp’s, was “excessive” and “indefensible.”
They want the judge’s permission to overturn the jury’s verdict and to dismiss the lawsuit of Depp or order a fresh trial. After the verdict was announced the judge reduced compensatory damages to $350,000, as per the state’s limit.
Depp filed a lawsuit against Heard for the libel charge in Fairfax County Circuit Court over an op-ed in December that She wrote for The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.”
The lawyers representing Depp claim that they were defamed in the piece, even when it did not mention his name.
The six-week trial on television transformed into an event that provided a glimpse into their marriage that was dysfunctional. A large portion of the evidence focused on Heard’s claim she was physically and sexually assaulted by Depp.
Heard spoke of several dozen possible assaults, including one in Australia which was where Depp was filming a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel, where Depp lost the point of his middle finger. Heard claims the actress was assaulted sexually by an alcohol bottle.
Depp claimed he didn’t hit Heard and said Heard was the victim.
Depp must prove that she did not assault Heard and that her op-ed piece insulted him, and that she wrote the piece with real intent to harm.
As part of their motions for post-trial Heard’s legal team claimed that in order to prove that Heard was not a victim of actual malice, Depp would have proved that, at the time when Heard’s piece was released, the writer didn’t believe that she had been victimized.
“Instead, the evidence overwhelmingly supported Ms. Heard believed she was the victim of abuse at the hands of Mr. Depp,” the lawyers for Heard state argue in their motion.
Heard’s lawyers have also asked the judge to inquire into “potential improper juror service,” they claim that one juror chosen to be a juror was listed as born in 1945, according to documents provided to attorneys prior to the selection process for jurors, however, the juror is identified as having been born in 1970 according to publicly accessible information.
“This discrepancy raises the question of whether Juror 15 actually received a summons for jury duty and was properly vetted by the Court to serve on the jury,” Heard’s lawyers claimed when they filed their motion.
The attorneys of Depp’s have not responded to our request for comments.
The jury also granted Heard $2 million as a counterclaim against Depp in a verdict that found Heard was ridiculed by one of Depp’s lawyers who accused her of putting together an elaborate hoax, which included securing the couple’s home to make it look more suspicious for police.
In a way, the trial was a rerun of the lawsuit Depp brought within the United Kingdom against a British tabloid following his description as a “wife-beater.” The judge, in that case, decided against the tabloid in the year 2020, after determining that Heard was describing the truth when she described the abuse.
