Amber Heard alleges a juror in Johnny Depp trial was never chosen for duty
CBSN
Weeks after she was found liable for defaming Johnny Depp and ordered to pay the actor millions of dollars, Amber Heard has alleged that one of the jurors was not actually the person summoned to be on the jury. Heard's legal team said that the inclusion of the erroneous juror violated her due process rights and asked the judge to declare a mistrial.
The Friday filing provides more information about a claim Heard's lawyers made when asking the judge to throw out the verdict last week. Her team asked the judge at the time to investigate "potential improper juror service," The Associated Press reported, noting that in documents given to attorneys before jury selection, the person was listed as being born in 1945 — but public information showed the juror who showed up to the trial was born in 1970.
The new document, filed Friday by Heard's legal team, offered new details on the alleged incident. A 77-year-old was randomly selected for jury duty, the document said — but instead, a 52-year-old with the same last name who apparently lives at the same address came to the court and served as a juror throughout the trial. Their names were redacted in the document.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.