The high-profile defamation trial involving Johnny Depp and Amber Heard could start back up all over again. After a six-week-long trial that culminated with the jury siding heavily with Depp, Heard has maintained that she did not fabricate her accusations of domestic violence as her ex-husband argued. Her attorneys vowed to appeal the decision, but they may not have to if the verdict gets tossed. And that could very well happen if a judge agrees with Heard's legal team that a fraudulent juror nullifies the verdict.
Last week, Team Heard filed a motion for the judge to toss the verdict or have a retrial based on their belief that one of the jurors was not legitimate. According to updated docs, the attorneys have provided more details about this accusation. They claim that a jury summons was sent to a Virginia home occupied by two people who happen to have the same name, though one is 77 years old while the other is 52. The older of the two residents is the one who was summoned and Heard's lawyers say it was clearly a much younger individual who asctually appeared in court. It is argued that the juror, who sided with Depp along with the others, should never have served on the jury. Per Variety, the documentation says in part:
“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. This was a high-profile case, where the fact and date of the jury trial were highly publicized prior to and after the issuance of the juror summonses.”
Amber Heard Says This Isn't Over Yet
It remains to be seen if this movement will result in a new trial, even if it turns out that this particular juror had not been the person summoned to serve. With that said, should that request be a success, that would obviously be a huge win for Heard. Though she has said she plans to appeal the verdict, her lawyers have stated that she does not currently have the money required to do so. A court-ordered retrial is different and could essentially provide Heard the do-over she wants without costing her quite so much money.
No matter how things turn out, Johnny Depp seems to have already come out ahead. Televising the trial had put both sides of the story out there for viewers to see and form their own opinions. Most of the people watching seem to agree with the jury's belief that Heard had faked injuries to suggest that she had been abused by Depp, thus tarnishing his career. Heard's motion for a retrial has also put forth claims that Depp ruined his own reputation with his behavior and that it was not the op-ed written by Heard that had gotten him fired by Disney and Warner Bros., as Depp has alleged.