In a defamation case involving her ex-husband Johnny Depp, Aquaman actor Amber Heard unsuccessfully requested a new trial on Wednesday. The judge rejected her attorneys’ claim that one of the jurors had been selected improperly.
In June, a jury in Fairfax County, Virginia, decided Heard had defamed the Pirates of the Caribbean actor in a newspaper opinion piece, and they ordered her to pay Depp $10.35 million in damages.
Her attorneys had asked the judge in the case to throw out the decision and declare a mistrial, arguing that one of the jurors on the case should not have been eligible to serve because his summons was intended for his father, who had the same name and lived at the same address.
Judge Penny Azcarate ruled that the jury’s decision should stand because there was “no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing” on the part of the juror.
She added that at the beginning of the trial, all potential jurors had been questioned and accepted by both sides.
According to Azcarate, “due process was guaranteed and provided to all parties in this litigation.”
Depp, 59, had sued Heard, claiming that she had defamed him by referring to herself in an opinion piece that appeared in The Washington Post as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” Depp asserted that Heard, 36, was the one who started acting violently in their relationship and denied hitting her.
Heard countersued Depp, alleging that his attorney slandered her by referring to her allegations as a “hoax.” On one of Heard’s counterclaims, the jury decided to award $2 million in damages to her. Heard claimed she only hit Depp in self- or sister-defense.
