It’s going to start over five years after her last Desperate Housewives trial ended in a mistrial but Nicollette Sheridan will be back in court on June 5, 2017, a L.A. Superior Court judge decided today. Given new legal life by the 2nd District Court of Appeal last October, the actress can pursue her claim of retaliation against ABC/Touchstone for her firing from the hit show in 2009.
The just over two-week trial will certainly see Sheridan take the stand, though likely not former DH EP Marc Cherry, who was released from the original case before it went to the jury back in 2012. However, fellow ex-DH stars Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman, Teri Hatcher and Marcia Cross are on the defense witness list – though they may not actually appear say attorneys. Of course, with all the starts, stops, mistrials and motions this matter has seen over the past six-years, it could all go off the rails again anyway if dismissals sought by ABC/Touchstone lawyer Adam Levin get a green light later this year.
As she did back in the 2012 trial, first filed in 2010, Sheridan claims that DH creator and EP Cherry struck her on set in 2008 while the two were in dispute over a scene. Sheridan has argued that her complaining about the matter to ABC execs resulted in her being suddenly let go from the show, which ended its run in May 2012. Cherry and ex-ABC execs like current CW boss Mark Pedowitz and then programming boss Steven McPherson testified that discussions of getting rid of Sheridan’s Eddie Britt character preceded the incident and her termination had nothing to do with it.
A hung jury resulted in the first more sprawling trial being tossed in March 2012. After numerous attempts to resurrect the matter, Sheridan and her main lawyer Mark Baute succeeded last year in getting the Appeals Court to overturn the October 2013 ruling by Judge Michael Stern denying Sheridan another trial. That setback was based on Stern noting that Sheridan didn’t filed a complaint with the California Labor Commission within six-months of the alleged assault by Cherry in September 2008. An amendment of those rules in 2013 opened up the possibility of further action – even more when the Appeals Court said last year that “there is no requirement that an individual exhaust administrative remedies or procedures.”
Judge Holly Kendig will proceed over the new trial – if and when it happens.
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