Amber Heard’s request for a mistrial in her defamation case with her ex-husband Johnny Depp has been denied.
Last week, the actress’ legal team requested a mistrial, alleging that the wrong juror showed up to trial.
Documents filed with the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, obtained by PEOPLE, claimed she was entitled to a mistrial “based on newly discovered facts and information that Juror No. 15 was not the individual summoned for jury duty on April 11, 2022.”
They claimed that the person selected for the jury was 77-years-old at the time, and shares the same last name and home address as someone who was 52-years-old.
Amber’s legal team alleged it was the younger of the two people who actually served on the jury, despite the older of the two having been summoned.
“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 such as this,” the documents stated.
They noted the “high-profile” status of the trial “where the fact and date of the jury trial were highly publicized prior to and after the issuance of the juror summonses.”
Amber’s lawyers added that she was not given the proper “due process,” so she is asking for a mistrial and “a new trial ordered.”
According to new legal documents, obtained by Entertainment Tonight, Judge Penney S. Azcarate ruled that there was no evidence of fraud, or wrongdoing.
Johnny’s legal team described the request for a mistrial, and for the judge to order a new trial, as “frivolous.”
Amber’s request for a mistrial came just one week after her lawyers requested that the verdict in the defamation trial be overturned and a new trial be ordered, as they alleged the ruling wasn’t supported by the evidence presented during the six-week trial.
In those filed documents, they had argued that investigations should be launched into “improper juror service,” citing the alleged difference in the person summoned, and the person who showed up.
Elaine Bredehoft previously vowed that the ‘Aquaman’ star would appeal the decision that found her guilty of defaming her ex-husband in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed.
Johnny, 58, launched a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife in 2019, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in the op-ed.
Following a six-week trial and 13 hours of deliberations, the jury sided with Depp and awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages, and a further $5 million in punitive damages.
However, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive damages to $350,000, which is the State of Virginia’s legal limit, resulting in total damages of $10.4 million awarded to Johnny.
Following the verdict, Amber’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft revealed the actress is “absolutely not” able to pay that much in damages to Johnny.
She has since shared their plans to appeal the verdict, as she claimed “a number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed”.
The attorney also blamed the verdict on a “number of evidentiary issues”, saying “there was so much evidence that did not come in.”
During the six-week long trial, Amber detailed multiple incidents of alleged abuse, and told the court that “violence became normal” towards the end of their relationship.
However, Johnny testified that he never hit his ex-wife, and claimed that she was the abuser in their relationship.
In court, the 58-year-old said the allegations that he was a “drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women” have cost him “everything”.
Johnny and Amber first met in 2009 on the set of the film The Rum Diary, and were married in February 2015.
Their divorce was finalised two years later.
