A US judge on Wednesday rejected actress Amber Heard's request for a new trial in the defamation case she lost against her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Heard's lawyers had asked Judge Penney Azcarate to overturn the verdict that requires her to pay $10 million to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star and declare the trial null and void, but the judge dismissed it.
Azcarate ruled that there was "no evidence of fraud or misconduct" on the part of the jury and that the verdict should be upheld because both parties questioned and accepted all the jury members at the beginning of the trial.
"Due process was guaranteed and provided to all parties in this litigation," stated Azcarate.
This request was filed after another one by Heard's defense, in which they asked for the sentence to be annulled since the damages recognized to Depp for the publication of an article in which the actress claimed, without mentioning her ex-husband, to have been subjected to sexual violence were excessive and unsupported by evidence.
They also accused the star of "Pirates of the Caribbean" of not meeting the legal requirements to demonstrate real malicious intent. This document already mentioned the alleged error regarding the jury, but they had not used it as an argument to request the annulment of the high-profile trial until now.
The unanimously issued judgment on June 1st states that three statements written by Heard in her opinion article published in 2018 by The Washington Post defamed Depp, although the actor himself defamed his ex-wife on one occasion.
Thus, the jury found both Hollywood stars liable for defamation, but ordered Heard to pay $10.3 million in damages to Depp while the actor was only imposed a $2 million payment.
With information from agencies.