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Mistrial in Desperate Housewives case

Lawyers for Nicollette Sheridan vow to retry her case against ABC, after a judge declares a mistrial in her $6 million lawsuit.

The Desperate Housewives trial between actress Nicollette Sheridan and ABC ended in a mistrial this week.

Sheridan, who alleged that creator Marc Cherry killed off her character because she complained to ABC following a backstage altercation with him, fell one vote short in her $6 million lawsuit.

In California, nine votes are needed to decide a civil case.

“You’d think we’d be disappointed, but we’re not,” said her lawyer, Mark Baute, after the two-week trial.

“We got the story out. We came up one short,” he said.

“We’ll do the dance again,” Baute said, vowing to retry the case.

“I don’t think the money was the issue,” said juror Beverly Crosby, a human resources exec who voted for the actress. “It was just a matter of credibility among the witnesses.

“There were a lot of people that some of the jurors found not too credible.”

Crosby also said she questioned how the investigation into Sheridan’s claim of abuse was handled by ABC.

“In my estimation,” ABC’s inquiry “wasn’t handled correctly….I won’t say there was a cover up. That’s a strong word, but it wasn’t handled right,” she said.

George Perkins, a Housewives executive producer, testified that when Cherry brought Sheridan back for the final episode of season five – weeks after she was told to clear out – it was not a creative necessity but rather to embarrass her in the hope that she would not show up and breach her contract.

Source: Hollywood Reporter, NY Post

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