- Actress Nicollette Sheridan sued the show's creator and ABC for wrongful termination
- She claims her firing was in retaliation for complaining she was struck by show's creator
- First trial ended with the jury was deadlocked at 8-4, in favor of the actress
- Juror says she questioned credibility of ABC's witnesses
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Actress Nicollette Sheridan's wrongful termination lawsuit against the studio that produces "Desperate Housewives" will be retried in September, a Los Angeles judge ordered this week.
The first trial ended without a verdict as jurors deadlocked 8 to 4 in favor of the actress after three days of deliberations. They needed nine jurors to agree on a verdict.
The judge set aside 12 days on her calendar for the jury trial, which is scheduled to begin on September 10.
In her lawsuit, Sheridan claimed her character was killed -- and her acting job eliminated -- in retaliation for her complaining that show producer Marc Cherry hit her during a rehearsal for the ABC comedy-drama.
Sheridan lawyer Mark Baute has previously said he did not expect an out-of-court settlement.
"My view is that Disney is the unhappiest place on Earth, so why would there ever be a settlement offer?" Baute said.
ABC lawyer Adam Levin said the retrial will be "far more narrow than the previous case" since the judge tossed out Sheridan's battery complaint against Cherry, leaving only the wrongful termination issue against the ABC.
Lawyers for Cherry and ABC's Touchstone Television argued the demise of Sheridan's character was a creative decision unrelated to the workplace complaint.
ABC executives testified that Cherry gained their permission to have Edie Britt -- the sassy blonde played by Sheridan -- die in May 2008, four months before the incident in which Cherry allegedly struck Sheridan.
The hit during a rehearsal was just "a light tap on the head" intended to demonstrate "a piece of physical humor" that Cherry wanted Sheridan to perform, the defense said in opening statements.
Sheridan testified that Cherry hit her because he was frustrated during a discussion over her lines in a scene. "It was a nice wallop to my head," she said.
One juror who voted for Sheridan's case said afterward that the defense story "just didn't hold water for me."
Beverly Crosby, a retired elementary school principal, said her decision to find the studio liable was based on her doubts about the credibility of several defense witnesses, which included high-level ABC executives.
"There were a lot of people that some of the jurors found not too credible," Crosby said.
Juror Johnny Huynh, who also voted for Sheridan's side, said it seemed to him that ABC executives scripted their stories "just a little bit."
"I don't say they was scripted," Huyhn said. "It's more like the story don't match for me."
Although the show's line producer reported the hitting incident to the studio's human resources department, there was no investigation until an ABC senior executive saw a National Enquirer story about it at a grocery store two months later, according to testimony.
What followed was a "fake" investigation designed "to protect the money machine known as 'Desperate Housewives,' " Baute said. "Nobody wants the 'Desperate Housewives' applecart turned upside down."
The human resources investigator did not interview Cherry or Sheridan, only three people who worked for Cherry, Baute said.
Five months and 11 episodes after the rehearsal incident, Cherry informed Sheridan that Britt would die during a show taping the next day, ending her five-year run on "Desperate Housewives."
"To my estimation, it wasn't handled correctly," juror Crosby said. "It wasn't handled the way it should have been handled."
Sheridan was asking for $5.7 million in damages from ABC and Cherry, although the actress was paid $4 million in her last year of work and is still earning royalties from her vested interest in the hit series.
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