Johnny Depp hired legal consultant after seeing her on Netflix’s Making a Murderer
Johnny Depp reportedly hired one of the lawyers involved in the hit Netflix series Making a Murderer because she was “the last person someone would hire if they were guilty”.
Kathleen Zellner, who was a case consultant for the actor in his multi-million dollar US defamation suit, said he had called her personally after watching the popular true-crime show.
Mr Depp won his US lawsuit against his former partner Amber Heard after a jury found her 2018 article in the Washington Post defamatory.
Speaking to the Law & Crime Network following the verdict, Ms Zellner said: “He called me and left a voicemail at my office.
“I didn’t really believe that it was Johnny Depp at all, but it sounded like him and he left the phone number and just said he wanted to talk to me.”
She added: “It was indicative to me of the fact that he was innocent, because he said, ‘I saw on Making a Murderer, where you said that you’d be the last person someone would hire if they were guilty, because you would find out about it’.
“And I was very struck with that that that’s what motivated him to contact me.”
Ms Zellner also praised the actor’s legal team and said his testimony during the case was “not an act”, adding that the film star was a “very humble and sincere person”.
After a six-week trial, jury members found Depp should be awarded $15 million in damages - $10 million (£8 million) in punitive damages and $5 million (£4 million) in compensatory damages.
However, the judge said state law caps punitive damages at $350,000 (£280,000), meaning Depp was awarded $10.35 million.Following the rulings, Depp said he was “humbled” that the jury had “given me my life back”.
Heard, on the other hand, said she was "heartbroken" and "disappointed with what this verdict means for other women”.
The Pirates Of The Caribbean actor sued his former partner over a Washington Post article she wrote, titled: “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”
The article does not mention Depp by name, yet his lawyers say it falsely implies he physically and sexually abused the Aquaman actress while they were together.
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