NEED TO KNOW
A male juror from the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial in Virginia speaks out in a new book published on June 17
The book claims the juror said the two women among the seven-person jury “were tougher on Amber than the men”
“We didn’t believe a lot of what she was saying,” said the juror, who also admitted he “enjoyed” Depp’s testimony
A juror from Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s Virginia trial speaks out in a new book about the legal saga, shedding light on the jury’s decision-making process.
In Kelly Loudenberg and Makiko Wholey’s new book Hollywood Vampires: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and the Celebrity Exploitation Machine, former juror Tom Nugen, 53-year-old retired defense contractor, offers insight into what happened in the deliberation room. According to the book, Nugen claimed the women jurors “were tougher on Amber than the men.” (The seven-person jury consisted of five men and two women.)
In the book, Nugen said the jury felt there were “so many inconsistencies” and “so many holes” in Heard’s story and “it was hard for us to believe any of it.” “We didn’t believe a lot of what she was saying. They’re all actors; they can put on a different face if you pay them enough,” he added.
“For me, I enjoyed [Depp’s] testimony,” he said. “He was pretty entertaining going back and forth with Heard’s lawyers. We were sitting there for eight hours a day, and having him on the stand was a breath of fresh air.”
Per the book, Nugen said the majority of the jury didn’t know who Heard was prior to the trial.
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To Nugen, the trial showed that “not every case of abuse is from the man.”
“I agree, in a lot of cases in the past it probably was the man. But you can’t just jump to that conclusion. For someone like Johnny Depp, he can weather the storm. He’s got money, fame, connections. But an ordinary guy like me could lose his job and livelihood. There’s just no way of coming back from that. Before people start to put a scarlet letter on you, you have to let them have their day in court, or at least allow them to defend themselves without any prejudged ideas.”
Dey Street Books
Depp, now 62, had sued his ex-wife Heard, now 39, in Virginia over a Washington Post op-ed she’d written about domestic abuse, though she didn’t mention him by name in the article. The verdict came June 1, 2022: Depp won his defamation claims, and Heard won one of her three counterclaims. They later reached a settlement and she paid him $1 million.
“I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence and sway of my ex-husband,” Heard said in a statement reacting to the outcome at the time.
Depp said at the time, “The jury gave me my life back,” and added: “I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up. I also hope that the position will now return to innocent until proven guilty, both within the courts and in the media.”
An unnamed male juror from the trial previously spoke to ABC News in 2022, saying, “A lot of the jury felt what [Depp] was saying, at the end of the day, was more believable…. He just seemed a little more real in terms of how he was responding to questions. His emotional state was very stable throughout.”
That juror added at the time, “Ultimately what I think it truthful was that they were both abusive to each other. I don’t think that makes either of them right or wrong. But to rise to the level of what she was claiming, there wasn’t enough or any evidence that really supported what she was saying.”
Hollywood Vampires: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and the Celebrity Exploitation Machine is out now wherever books are sold.
Read the original article on People
