An anonymous juror who sat on the defamation trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has insisted the jury’s decision was not influenced by social media.
Earlier this month, a jury of five men and two women found Amber guilty of defaming her ex-husband in an op-ed for the Washington Post, which was published in December 2018.
The jury awarded Johnny over $10 million in damages, and Amber $2 million in damages on one of her three defamation countersuit claims.
After the verdict came out on June 1, Amber’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft claimed her client was “demonized” during the trial and that internet favour was “absolutely” in Johnny’s corner, which she believes affected the outcome of the case.
In a conversation with ABC News that aired Thursday morning, one of the five male jurors insisted social media did not play a part in the jury’s decision.
He said: “We followed the evidence. Myself and at least two other jurors don’t use Twitter or Facebook. Others who had it made a point not to talk about it.”
The anonymous juror said he also believes that “a lot of Amber’s story didn’t add up” and “the majority of the jury felt she was more the aggressor.”
He said: “The crying, the facial expressions that she had, the staring at the jury. All of us were very uncomfortable… She would answer one question and she would be crying and then two seconds later she would turn ice cold… Some of us used the expression ‘crocodile tears’.”
“Ultimately, what I think is truthful was that they were both abusive to each other. I don’t think that makes either of them right or wrong. But to rise to the level of what she was claiming, there wasn’t enough or any evidence that really supported what she was saying.”
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 an op-ed for the Washington Post in December 2018.
While his name was excluded from the piece, Johnny’s legal team have argued that the op-ed implied that he “perpetrated domestic violence against her.”
In response, Amber countersued Johnny, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.
In her countersuit, the actress claimed she was defamed by statements made by Depp’s former lawyer, Adam Waldman, who told the Daily Mail her abuse claims were a “hoax”.
Regarding her countersuit, the jury awarded $2 million in compensatory damages to Amber, but $0 in punitive damages
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 he was a “drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women” have cost him “everything”.
Johnny and Amber met in 2009 on the set of the film The Rum Diary, and they got married in February 2015.
Their divorce was finalised two years later.
