Amber Heard has demanded the verdict in her blockbuster defamation trial against Johnny Depp be tossed.
Speaking out on the behalf of the 36-year-old Aquaman actress, Heard’s lawyers filed a motion calling for the verdict to be tossed and for the case to be re-tried in court.
As the legal team argued, the verdict in Johnny Depp’s favor was not backed by evidence. They also claimed that one of the jurors was “illegitimate” because he/she was allegedly not properly vetted before being allowed on the jury.
“[Depp] proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms. Heard’s statements were actually false,” the attorneys wrote in the lengthy, 43-page document.
They went on to suggest that one of the jurors was decades younger than what was listed in the court records.
“[Juror 15] was clearly born later than 1945. Publicly available information demonstrates that he appears to have been born in 1970,” the memorandum says.
“This discrepancy raises the question whether Juror 15 actually received a summons for jury duty and was properly vetted by the court to serve on the jury. It appears his identity could not have been verified.”
The defense further argued that the amount Heard was ordered to pay in compensatory damages – $10 million – was excessive due to the fact that the jurors considered parameters outside the scope of Johnny’s defamation lawsuit at the center of which was the period between Dec. 18, 2018 and November 2, 2020.
“Mr. Depp made no such effort at any point in the trial to limit his claimed damages. Instead, even throughout the Closings, Mr. Depp continued to urge the jury to restore his reputation and legacy to his children as a result of Ms. Heard accusing Mr. Depp in May 2016 of domestic violence,” the filing added.
It is not believed that the motion will go a long way, whereas Judge Penney Azcarate previously dismissed Heard’s requests for additional hearings and told her legal team they could file a legal appeal in the court.
Should she wish to appeal, however, the actress, who is said to be broke, would have to post a bond of the full damages which amount to $10.35 million.
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