Amber Heard Tried To Get Johnny Depp's Win Thrown Out & A Judge Just Shut Her Down Hard
Amber Heard has been handed another defeat in her court battle with Johnny Depp after a judge shot down her request for a new trial.
Heard, 36, had asked the court to toss out Depp's defamation win against her last month after a jury agreed she defamed him with an op-ed published in The Washington Post. Heard also won part of her countersuit in the high-profile trial, but she currently owes him $10.35 million in damages after the jury verdict.
And now, her last-ditch effort to dodge that bill has failed.
Heard's legal team had asked a judge in Virginia to throw out Depp's victory because of what they claimed was an issue with one juror. According to her team, Juror 15 was not properly vetted because the person's birth date didn't match the original summons to jury duty.
But Judge Penney Azcarate, who also presided over the trial, denied all seven of Heard's arguments about the juror in a ruling issued on Wednesday.
In her ruling, the judge pointed out that Heard's team was part of the jury vetting process and they had their chance to flag possible issues with Juror 15 before things got started. She also wrote that they had plenty of time to look for problems and "there is no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing" concerning the juror.
"The juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated and reached a verdict," the judge wrote.
"The only evidence before this Court is that this juror and all jurors followed their oaths, the Court's instructions, and orders."
Depp's lawyers criticized the request in their own filing about the bid earlier this week.
"The verdict was well supported by the overwhelming evidence, consistent with the law, and should not be set aside," they wrote in a memo to the court.
"While Ms. Heard slings an exceptional amount of mud at the wall in the hope that something might stick, the jury's verdict on damages was perfectly reasonable."
Heard's lawyers have said she was "demonized" on social media during the six-week trial and that she "absolutely" can't afford to pay Depp the damages she owes him.
The two sides had a chance to negotiate a smaller settlement last month, but they failed to reach an agreement before the deadline.
Heard sat for a rare interview with NBC News last month, in which she said she has "no bad feelings or ill will" toward Depp in the wake of the trial.
The formerly married actors have each accused each other of abuse throughout their relationship.
