An alleged juror in the recently concluded Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial has slammed the “Aquaman” actress as a not very credible witness, reported the Daily Mail.
In his TikTok video, referenced by the outlet, the man claiming to be one of the seven jurors that unanimously ruled in the Hollywood actor’s favour in the defamation lawsuit offered behind-the-scenes insights into the case.
The “juror” was responding to a question from a TikTok user, who asked him:
“What would you say was the moment that you were like NOPE.. if she's lying about this she's lying about everything?”
The man replied: “I would say the donation/pledge to charity.”
Amber Heard had promised to donate half of her $7 million divorce settlement from Johnny Depp in 2016 to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Children's Hospital Los Angeles. However, Terence Dougherty, ACLU chief operating officer and general counsel, testified that she had failed to do so.
When pressed about the lie in court, Heard claimed that she used the word “donated” and “pledged” synonymously. She went on to say that she was yet to make the full donation “because Johnny sued me for $50 million in March of 2019.”
"I still fully intend on honoring all of my pledges… I would love him to stop suing me so I can," said Heard on 16 May.
According to the “juror”, Heard’s comments regarding the donation were met with incredulity from Depp's lawyers and the jury.
“… From the very beginning, when Amber Heard was testifying, everything just seemed so off with how she kept making eye contact with me, and it made me extremely uncomfortable - to the extent where I would no longer look over at her, when she was giving her answers. I would just listen intently, and everything she was saying came off like bulls***,” the purported juror said in the TikTok video.
He added that this had been his “gut feeling, after all the information in the trial.”
As a user praised Johnny Depp's lawyer, Camille Vasquez, for having done a “great job” while criticizing the testimony presented by Heard's sister, Whitney, the alleged juror responded:
“She seemed to be supporting her sister out of obligation and manipulation to me… Didn't seem like she wanted to be there.'
The individual claiming to be a juror from the defamation trial also acknowledged that the jury not so much “hated” Heard as mostly “didn't empathize” with her.
The alleged juror also claimed that Amber Heard was “gaslighting” Johnny Depp.
“She could never admit she was wrong. You can even tell with how she spoke to him in the recordings - she never admitted to him she did anything. And she carried that on to the trial.”
After six weeks of testimony and deliberations, jurors in Fairfax, Virginia, reached their verdict on Wednesday afternoon.
Johhny Depp had sued Amber Heard for $50 million in lost career earnings following the publication of a 2018 Washington Post op-ed (printed in Fairfax County) where she alleged she was the victim of domestic abuse.
The actress did not specifically identify Depp by name in the piece, yet the actor argued that it clearly referred to their marriage, which began in 2015 Amber Heard counter-sued the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star for $100 million.
The jury awarded him $15 million: $10 million in compensatory damages, which is compensation for libel, and $5 million in punitive damages, which is the penalty for libel. However, under Virginia's statute, Depp's punitive damages are limited to $350,000. Accordingly, he will be awarded just over $10 million.