Johnny Depp‘s legal team on Monday filed a 36-page memorandum arguing that the actor’s ex-wife Amber Heard‘s request for a new trial based on an alleged juror error is “frivolous” and “desperate.”
A jury on June 1 found that Heard defamed Depp in an op-ed about domestic violence published by The Washington Post in 2018, awarding Depp $15 million in damages.
“Mr. Depp respectfully submits that the Court should deny Ms. Heard’s Post-Trial Motions, which verge into the frivolous,” the memorandum said, according to Newsweek.
“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 and supported by the evidence and testimony in this case,” the filing continued.
Heard’s team claimed one of the jurors who served in the trial was not one of the individuals who was summoned for jury duty, The Daily Wire recently reported.
“Ms. Heard had a right to rely on the basic protection, as prescribed by the Virginia Code, that the jurors in this trial would be individuals who were actually summoned for jury duty,” the legal filing accused. “In this case, it appears that Juror No. 15 was not, in fact, the same individual as listed on the jury panel. Ms. Heard’s due process was therefore compromised. Under these circumstances, a mistrial should be declared, and a new trial ordered.”
Depp’s team seemed to suggest the juror in question, “Juror 15,” was indeed the juror summoned but that his birth date was in error.
“Juror 15 had a birth year of 1945. Juror 15, however, was clearly born later than 1945. Publicly available information demonstrates that he appears to have been born in 1970,” Depp’s team said.
“Ms. Heard’s desperate, after-the-fact demand for an investigation of Juror 15 based on a purported error in his birth date is … misplaced … Moreover, Ms. Heard’s argument is based on pure speculation,” the filing blasted.
“For all the reasons set forth above, Mr. Depp respectfully requests that this Court deny Ms. heard’s frivolous Motion in its entirety and reject her outlandish requests to set aside the jury verdict, dismiss the Complaint, or, in the alternative, order a new trial, and investigate Juror 15,” the legal team concluded.
Heard’s legal team claims someone with the same last name and who lives at the same address as the individual summoned for jury duty showed up instead and served as a juror during the trial. Heard and her counsel has made it clear that the actress does not intend to pay Depp the millions she owes him.
Elaine Bredehoft, an attorney for Heard, told NBC “Today” host Savannah Guthrie last month that her client was “absolutely not” able to pay Depp.
Related: Alleged Error In Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Case Could Force New Trial, Filing Says