Amber Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft on verdict and what’s subsequent
06:30
Weeks after she was discovered answerable for defaming Johnny Depp and ordered to pay the actor thousands and thousands of {dollars}, Amber Heard has alleged that one of many jurors was not really the individual summoned to be on the jury. Heard’s authorized workforce mentioned that the inclusion of the faulty juror violated her due course of rights and requested the decide to declare a mistrial.
The Friday submitting gives extra details about a declare Heard’s legal professionals made when asking the decide to throw out the decision final week. Her workforce requested the decide on the time to analyze “potential improper juror service,” The Related Press reported, noting that in paperwork given to attorneys earlier than jury choice, the individual was listed as being born in 1945 — however public info confirmed the juror who confirmed as much as the trial was born in 1970. The brand new doc, filed Friday by Heard’s authorized workforce, provided new particulars on the alleged incident. A 77-year-old was randomly chosen for jury responsibility, the doc mentioned — however as a substitute, a 52-year-old with the identical final title who apparently lives on the identical tackle got here to the courtroom and served as a juror all through the trial. Their names have been redacted within the doc.The doc didn’t present any motive for why this allegedly occurred or say how the scenario was uncovered.The legal professionals mentioned Fairfax County has a number of measures in place — together with requiring jurors to submit their zip code and beginning date — to make sure the individual summoned for jury responsibility is the one that really seems. However one way or the other, in response to the doc, these measures did not catch that the mistaken individual was current on the trial. “These safeguards are in place and relied upon by the events to confirm the identification of the proper juror, to make sure due course of and a good trial for all litigants,” the doc mentioned. “When these safeguards are circumvented or not adopted, as seems to be the case right here, the proper to a jury trial and due course of are undermined and compromised.”
A spokesperson for the Fairfax County Division of Public Affairs mentioned Decide Penney Azcarate, who presided over the trial, is not going to touch upon the allegation.
Actor Amber Heard waits earlier than the jury mentioned that they consider she defamed ex-husband Johnny Depp whereas asserting cut up verdicts in favor of each her ex-husband Johnny Depp and Heard on their declare and counter-claim within the Depp v. Heard civil defamation trial on the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S., June 1, 2022.
Evelyn Hockstein / REUTERS
Heard’s legal professionals additionally mentioned final week that Azcarate ought to throw out the decision as a result of the quantity awarded to Depp — $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages — was “extreme” and “indefensible,” the AP reported. The weeks-long trial led to early June with the jury discovering that Heard defamed Depp in a 2018 Washington Publish op-ed, and Depp was answerable for his lawyer calling her claims a hoax in a press release to the Day by day Mail. Depp was awarded $15 million — although he may solely gather $10.35 million on account of state limits on punitive damages — and Heard was awarded $2 million.
Victoria Albert
Victoria Albert is a Sr. Information Editor at LoafyNews Information. Attain her at victoria.albert@viacomcbs.com
