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05th Jun 2022

Johnny Depp reportedly hired lawyer after watching her on Netflix hit Making a Murderer

Simon Bland

Kathleen Zellner represented Steven Avery in Making a Murderer

Johnny Depp reportedly hired one of the lawyers from his recent defamation trial against his former wife Amber Heard after seeing her on a hit Netflix show.

Kathleen Zellner rose to the public eye after defending Steven Avery in the 2015 hit documentary series Making a Murderer. She was subsequently hired as a case consultant for Depp in his recently-concluded defamation trial against Heard following an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post on the topic of domestic abuse in 2018.

Just last week, a judge ruled in favour of Depp and he was awarded compensatory damages of $10m (£8m) alongside a further $5m (£4m) in punitive damages. Heard was also awarded $2m (£1.6m) in compensatory damages after her lawyers proved one of her counterclaims against Depp.

Now, in a new interview with The Law & Crime Network as per The Mirror, Zellner has claimed that Depp personally called her up to invite her to join his legal team after seeing her on the binge-hit true crime documentary series.

“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 continued, adding: “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.”

Throughout the same interview, Zellner described the Edward Scissorhands star as a “very humble and sincere person” and insisted that his testimony throughout the trial was “not an act”.

Meanwhile, Depp himself has been spotted in numerous places across the UK as he continues to join musician Jeff Beck on his current UK tour. However just this weekend, fellow music maker Sam Fender issued an officially apology after posing for a selfie with Depp, saying it was “poor timing”.

“I want to apologise,” he began.

“I was invited to briefly meet a musical legend and an actor who has been in almost every film I’ve watched growing up. I went – we chatted music and without thinking I took a photo and posted it as it was pretty surreal.

“I now realise that it was a poor choice of words and timing, but that’s irrelevant.

“It was naive and disrespectful to those who relate to any of the issues highlighted in the trial and the broader issues it poses. I didn’t think it through and I should have.”

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