Amber Heard’s lawyers asked for a judge to overturn the $10.35m verdict against her in the case of Johnny Depp. They argued that the evidence was weak and that one juror may not have been properly vetted.
Heard’s lawyers filed post-trial motions Friday claiming that the jury’s June 1 award to Depp of $10 million in compensatory damages, and $5 million in punitive damages was excessive and indefensible. They request that the judge annul the verdict, dismiss Depp’s case or allow a new trial. The judge reduced the compensatory damages from $350,000 to $350,000 immediately after the verdict was rendered.
Fairfax County Circuit Court heard that Depp sued Heard over an op-ed she published in The Washington Post in December 2018. It referred to herself as “a public figure representing domestic violence.” Depp’s lawyers claimed that he was defamed in the article, even though it did not mention him.
Their six-week-long televised trial became a spectacle that provided a glimpse into their dysfunctional marriage. Heard claimed that Depp had physically and sexually assaulted her. Much of the testimony was focused on this claim. Heard described more that a dozen alleged assaults. Heard also mentioned a fight in Australia, where Depp was filming a sequel to “Pirates of the Caribbean”. In which Depp lost the tip of the middle finger, and Heard claimed she was sexually assaulted using a liquor bottle.
Depp claimed that he didn’t hit Heard, and that she was the victim.
Depp needed to prove that Heard never assaulted him, that his op-ed piece was defamed and that the article was written with actual malice.
Heard’s legal team claimed that in order to prove that Heard was actually maliced, Depp would need to show that she believed she had not been abused at the time Heard published her article.
Heard’s lawyers state in their motion that “instead, the evidence strongly supported Ms. Heard believed that she was the victim abuse at the hands Mr. Depp.”
Heard’s lawyers ask the judge to investigate the “potentially improper jury service.” They claim that one of the jurors chosen to serve on the jury was born in 1945 according to documents provided to them by the attorneys. However, public information lists him as having been born in 1970.
Heard’s lawyers stated in their motion that “this discrepancy raises questions whether Juror 15, actually received a summons to jury duty and was properly checked by the Court for service on the jury.”
Depp’s lawyers did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
In her counterclaim against Depp the jury awarded Heard $2,000,000. It found that Heard had been defamed in court by Depp’s lawyer who claimed that Heard created a hoax that involved robbing the couple of their apartment so that it looked worse for police.
The trial was in some ways a replay of the lawsuit Depp brought against a British tabloid. He was accused of being a “wife-beater” and had filed it in the United Kingdom. After finding that Heard was truthful in her descriptions, the judge in that case ruled in favor of the newspaper in 2020.
