US judge rejects Amber Heard’s demand for new Depp trial

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AFP

Washington (AFP) โ€“ A Virginia judge on Wednesday rejected actress Amber Heardโ€™s demand for a new trial in the defamation case she lost to her former husband Johnny Depp.

Heardโ€™s lawyers had asked Judge Penney Azcarateย 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.

โ€œThere is no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing,โ€ Azcarate said, and the juror โ€œmet the statutory requirements for service.โ€

โ€œThe juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated, and reached a verdict,โ€ the judge said.

The jury in June found Depp and Heard liable for defamation โ€” but sided more strongly with the โ€œPirates of the Caribbeanโ€ 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 celebritiesโ€™ 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 โ€œsexual violenceโ€ 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 โ€œpublic figure representing domestic abuse.โ€

The 36-year-old Heard, who had counter-sued, was awarded $2 million.

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