US Court Rejected Amber Heard’s Request For A New Trial In Johnny Depp’s Defamation Case

Amber Heard’s request for new trial in a defamation case against her ex-husband Johnny Depp was rejected by a Virginia court in the US. On Wednesday, the judge, who governed over the six-week trial in April-June, issued a written order rejecting Amber’s proposal to have the June 1 verdict in the high-profile trial set aside. In the verdict, Amber was ordered to pay $10 million in compensatory damages and $3.5 million in punitive damages, while Johnny was ordered to pay Amber $2 million. 

Last week, Amber’s lawyers filed a motion saying that one of the jurors chosen for the Amber Heard vs Johnny Depp trial was not the same person, who received the jury summons. Johnny’s legal team had rejected the efforts by Amber’s lawyers and called the filing ‘foolish’.

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In a written order on Wednesday, Judge Penney Azcarate rejected all of Amber’s claims and said the juror issue especially was irrelevant and that Amber couldn’t show she was prejudiced. “The juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated, and reached a verdict. The only evidence before this Court is that this juror and all jurors followed their oaths, the Court’s instructions, and orders. The competent decision of the jury binds this Court,” Azcarate wrote, reported AP.

“The juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated, and reached a verdict. The only evidence before this Court is that this juror and all jurors followed their oaths, the Court’s instructions, and orders. The competent decision of the jury binds this Court,” Azcarate wrote.

After Amber published a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post exposing domestic violence, Johnny filed a defamation lawsuit against her in March 2019. Although Johnny’s name was not included in the story, his attorneys said it defamed him by bringing up allegations of violence made at the time of her divorce petition in 2016. Amber was forced to pay Johnny $10.35 million in damages by a jury in Fairfax County, Virginia, in early June after they found her guilty of three defamation allegations. Amber’s team was unable to establish that Johnny’s abuse was physical, despite the jury’s finding that “they were both violent to each other.” Amber received $2 million in compensatory damages after Johnny was found guilty of one slander allegation.