Seeking new trial in Depp defame suit
Amber Heard is seeking a new defamation trial against her exhusband, Johnny Depp, claiming the court battle she lost earlier this year was stacked against her.
The 36-year-old “Aquaman” actress filed her appeal earlier this month, arguing the exclusion of therapy notes in which she reported being abused resulted in an unfair trial. The evidence had been ruled out as hearsay by Fairfax County, Va., Judge Penney Azcarate.
“The trial court improperly prevented the jury from considering several separate instances in which Heard reported Depp’s abuse to a medical professional,” Heard’s lawyers wrote in the 68page document dated Nov. 23.
“If not reversed, the trial court’s exclusion of contemporaneous reports of domestic abuse to medical professionals will make it more difficult for other abuse victims to prove allegations of abuse, and likely deter them from coming forward,” they wrote.
Depp, 59, was awarded a $10.35 million verdict in
June after arguing that Heard’s 2018 Washington Post op-ed, in which she made claims of domestic abuse, was defamatory.
While Depp is not mentioned in the piece, his lawyers claimed the essay was clearly referring to her accusations that Depp abused her around their 2016 divorce.
Attorneys for Heard also argued the trial should have taken place in California, where the couple once lived, rather than in Virginia, where The Washington Post houses its servers.
Virginia was an “entirely inconvenient forum with no connection to Depp or any meaningful connection to his claims,” the filing states.
The case “should never have gone to trial because another court had already concluded that Depp abused Heard on multiple occasions,” her lawyers added, referencing the 2020 British ruling in favor of Britain’s The Sun, which Depp had sued for calling him a wife-beater. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star has already filed his own, claiming the one count of defamation that Heard won at the trial was “erroneous.” He is seeking to overturn the $2 million award against him.
“The jury’s emphatic favorable verdict on all three defamatory statements alleged in his complaint fully vindicated Mr. Depp and restored his reputation,” his lawyers wrote in court documents filed in November.
A panel of judges will issue a ruling on both claims, and each party will then have a chance to appeal once more.
Azcarate in July denied an earlier request from Heard for a new trial on multiple grounds including a juror snafu that, she argued, prejudiced the outcome of the case.
During the six-week trial, jurors were subjected to a slew of wild abuse allegations from both parties, including that Depp lost the tip of his finger when Heard allegedly threw a vodka bottle at him during a fight in Australia in March 2015. Heard alleged Depp hurt himself in a drunken rage and sexually abused her with a bottle.