If there wasn’t enough drama in Johnny Depp’s victory over Amber Sheard last month in a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit, things got judicially weird.
“Miss. Heard is entitled to rely on the fundamental protection under the Virginia Code that the jurors in this trial will be the individuals actually called to jury duty,” a new document partially redacted by Neptune’s legal team said Friday.
“In this case, it appears that Juror No. 15 is not actually the same person on the jury list,” added attorney Elaine Bredehoft, using language similar to that in the previous filing on June 24. Heard’s due process has been compromised as a result. Under these circumstances, a mistrial should be declared and a new trial ordered.”
Unlike the previous motion and memorandum filed late last month in the Fairfax County court docket to dismiss the June 1 verdict and proceed to a new trial, today’s supplemental memorandum has more details on what could take the victory from Depp in the long legal battle against his Ex-wife.
According to redacted documents, jury duty subpoenas were sent to a Virginia resident in April over a long-delayed $15 million defamation lawsuit Depp launched in March 2019 against Heard, who wrote in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed about the “public face” of domestic abuse “. However, according to today’s documents, it appears that two people lived at the same address and at least “the same last name” – one was 77 years old and the other 52.
The former was summoned, but it appears that the latter appeared. “Thus, the 52-year-old [redacted] who served on the jury for six weeks was never summoned to jury duty on April 11 and did not ‘appear on the list’ as required,” Friday’s damned filing said.
Court officials or clerks failed to notice that the younger person walked all the way to the jury and apparently was not asked to show any ID, or possibly a fake one, the documents imply. In addition, it appears that someone intentionally or unintentionally filled out the required online information form, saying they were born in 1945.
Unaware of this at the time and during the media frenzy of the trial, Hurd’s defense team now wants an explanation and sees some consequences that could make the Depp team shine:.
As the court undoubtedly agrees, it is deeply troubling that an individual who was not summoned for jury duty still appeared for jury duty and served on the jury, especially in this case. This was a high-profile case, and the facts and dates of the jury trial were highly publicized both before and after the juror summons was issued. Virginia has statutory statutory provisions designed to ensure that the person called to serve on a jury is the person who arrives to serve on the jury.
Fairfax County’s juror questionnaire webpage furthers this goal by requiring all county residents to log in using their 7-digit juror number, zip code, and “date of birth”. Attachment 5 (emphasis added). These safeguards are already in place and are used by the parties to verify the identity of the correct jurors to ensure due process and fair trial for all litigants. When these safeguards are circumvented or not followed, as is the case here, the right to a jury trial and due process is compromised and undermined
Representatives for both Hurd and Depp did not respond to a request for comment submitted Friday by the deadline. We also attempted to contact the Virginia court to gain insight.
While the details are still clear, Heard’s move comes as no surprise: Almost a minute after the June 1 $10 million-plus verdict, in which Depp was absent from Judge Penny Azcarat’s courtroom, Heard’s defense and $100 million counterclaim team have pledged to fight the appellate ruling.
Faced with having to pay $8.3 million in bonds to move forward, Hurd’s team may have cut off the Gordian Knot financially with this apparent Keystone Kops-like event.