Amber Heard’s lawyers have asked a judge to overturn the verdict against her in the defamation case filed by ex-husband Johnny Depp
Key points:
- In addition to a problem with the conclusions drawn, Ms.’s lawyers. Heard also raised doubts about one of the jurors.
- Depp had sued Ms Heard over an article she wrote in the Washington Post about domestic abuse
- That article did not name him, and a previous British tabloid article on Mr Depp’s alleged violence was upheld in a trial in the UK.
Ms. Heard’s attorneys argued that the verdict was not supported by the evidence and that one of the jurors may not have been properly reviewed by the court.
In the post-trial motions filed Friday, Ms. Heard’s attorneys described the June 1 jury’s award of $ 10.35 million ($ 15 million) to Mr. Heard. Depp “excessive” and “indefensible.”
In the motion, they asked the judge to overturn the verdict and dismiss Depp’s lawsuit or order a new trial.
Depp sued Ms. Heard for defamation in Fairfax County Circuit Court for an opinion piece she wrote in December 2018 in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” .
Depp’s lawyers alleged that he was defamed by the article, which never mentioned him by name.
“I am disappointed beyond words,” Ms Heard said after the June verdict. (AP: Tom Brenner)
Much of the testimony during the six-week trial focused on Ms. Heard’s allegations that she had been physically and sexually abused by Mr. Depp.
Heard described more than a dozen alleged assaults. Depp said he never assaulted her and that she was the aggressor.
Depp had to prove that he never assaulted Mrs. Heard, that his opinion piece defamed him, and that he wrote the article with real malice.
In its post-trial motions, Ms. Heard’s legal team argued that to find that she had a real ailment, Depp would have had to prove that, at the time the article was published, she did not believe she had been abused.
“Instead, the evidence overwhelmingly supported Ms. Heard’s belief that she was the victim of abuse at the hands of Mr. Depp,” her lawyers ’motion said.
At the end of the trial, Ms. Heard posted on social media that she believed Mr. Depp’s legal team had caused the jury to “ignore” key evidence.
“I think Johnny’s lawyer has managed to get the jury to overlook the key issue of free speech and ignore the so conclusive evidence we won in the UK,” he wrote.
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Ms. Heard’s attorneys also asked the judge to investigate “a possible inadequate jury service,” alleging that one of the jurors who was chosen to serve on the jury appeared as born in 1945 in documents handed to lawyers earlier. of the jury selection process, but appears as born in 1970 in publicly available information.
“This discrepancy raises the question of whether jury 15 actually received a subpoena to be a juror and was properly examined by the court to form part of the jury,” Ms. Heard’s attorneys said in her motion.
Depp’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The jury also awarded Ms. Heard $ 2 million ($ 2.9 million) in his counterclaim against Mr. Depp, finding that she was defamed by one of Mr. Depp’s lawyers. Depp, who accused her of creating a detailed scam that included damaging the couple’s apartment to look at. worse for the police.
Somehow, the trial was a repeat of a lawsuit that Mr. Depp filed in the UK against a British tabloid after he was described as a “female hitter”.
The judge in this case ruled in favor of the newspaper in 2020 after finding that Mrs Heard was telling the truth in her descriptions of abuse.
AP