US judge Penney Azcarate rejects Heard’s claims after actor filed motion seeking to have defamation verdict against her set aside
A judge on Wednesday rejected a request from the actor Amber Heard to set aside the $10m defamation judgment awarded against her in favor of her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.
Depp won a suit against Heard last month in a high-profile civil trial. Heard won a $2m judgment on a counter-claim against Depp.
Continue reading...Attorneys respond to request by Heard’s lawyers, who say the verdict was nonsensical and a juror was misidentified
Lawyers for Johnny Depp have urged the judge in the dueling defamation case with Amber Heard to leave his $10m judgment intact after attorneys for Heard requested that the verdict be set aside, including on grounds that one juror on the panel was misidentified.
In court papers filed on Monday, Depp’s lawyers dispute arguments from Heard’s team that the jury’s verdict was nonsensical and unfounded. They also say that the Heard team’s complaints about the juror’s identity are irrelevant.
Continue reading...Actor says she doesn’t blame jurors for ruling against her in defamation trial but criticizes online commentators
Amber Heard doesn’t blame jurors for ruling against her in the defamation trial pitting her against her fellow actor and former husband Johnny Depp over domestic abuse allegations, but she did dismiss the social media commentary surrounding the case as “unfair” to her, she said in her first remarks since the blockbuster verdict.
Heard made the statements during a sit-down interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, a preview of which aired on Monday morning on the network’s Today show.
Continue reading...The actor has been coy about returning to movies after his blockbuster defamation case – but PR moves are being made
Johnny Depp can probably thank his lawyers and PR for suddenly having a shot at a dramatic public image resurrection, but the question remains whether Hollywood will soon restore him to the big screen he used to dominate.
In the wake of his dramatic win in the defamation case against his ex-wife and fellow star Amber Heard – though Heard herself also won on one count against her former husband’s agent – speculation is now rife that Depp may go back to movies, despite his own claims that he has no interest in returning to the franchise blockbusters that supplied his fortune.
Continue reading...Fresh from US defamation case win against Amber Heard, actor has been playing UK gigs with Jeff Beck
On the latest stop of his UK tour, days after winning a multimillion-dollar defamation trial against Amber Heard, Johnny Depp was spotted holding a badger cub in Kent.
“Guess who’s been to see us,” Folly Wildlife Rescue Trust wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, which received thousands of likes. “That’s the real Johnny Depp!”
Continue reading...The focus of the case was a 2018 editorial Heard wrote calling herself ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’
The jury in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial has ruled in favor of Johnny Depp, finding that a Washington Post editorial she wrote defamed her former husband.
The jurors’ unanimous decision on Wednesday capped a seven-week trial in a Virginia courtroom which featured dozens of witnesses and experts weighing in on whether Depp was abusive to Heard – or vice versa – during their 15-month marriage.
Continue reading...After six weeks of testimony, a split verdict is returned on the former couple’s dueling defamation claims
More than three years after Johnny Depp sued ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation over an op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post about surviving domestic abuse, jurors returned a split verdict on the former couple’s dueling defamation claims.
After six weeks of testimony, amounting to 61 hours granted to each side, the Depp-Heard saga was only on its face a defamation case. It gave Depp an opportunity to air his narrative of a 15-month, love-to-hate marriage, and Heard, by return, to describe hers.
Continue reading...Closing arguments ask jurors to consider what their verdict in defamation case will mean for domestic abuse victims
The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial headed toward its conclusion on Friday as the dueling parties offered closing arguments after a seven-week trial that has gripped public attention and become something of a litmus test for the state of gender relations.
Seven of 11 impaneled jurors selected for the trial when it started in April spent a couple of hours beginning to deliberate a verdict after the conclusion of those closing arguments, but they won’t return a verdict for a few days at least. They were sent home Friday afternoon until Tuesday in advance of Monday’s Memorial Day holiday.
Continue reading...Actor also details ‘unspoken rules’ about how friends can touch her and says ‘Johnny has taken enough of my voice’
Testimony ended Thursday in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation case with Heard telling jurors that she suffers minute-by-minute harassment, including death threats, and daily trauma requiring special “rules” in her life to prevent anxiety attacks.
“My friends have to live with a set of unspoken rules about how they can touch me,” the 36-year-old Aquaman actor told the court in what amounted to the final reel of the hearing in the long-running case.
Continue reading...Supermodel, 48, says in three-minute appearance that she and Depp had been in romantic relationship between 1994 and 1998
Kate Moss testified by video for just three minutes on Wednesday in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, dispelling a rumor that Depp had pushed her down a flight of steps when he was her boyfriend in the 1990s.
The 48-year-old supermodel, speaking from her English home in Gloucestershire, told the court in Virginia that she and Depp had been in a romantic relationship from 1994 to 1998.
Depp’s attorney Benjamin Chew asked Moss if anything had happened while they were on holiday at the GoldenEye resort in Jamaica.
Richard Moore says he is sceptical of claim that Depp injured finger during Amber Heard fight, as defamation trial enters final week
The defamation trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard entered its fifth and final week of testimony on Monday, with a witness for Heard testifying that Depp could not have lost the tip of his finger during a domestic fight in the way he had recounted.
The serious injury to his middle finger, which occurred during a March 2015 row in Australia between Depp and Heard during their brief marriage, has been one of several key points of dispute in the civil case.
Continue reading...Actor denies putting human feces in couple’s bed and claims ‘he was talking to people who weren’t in the room’
Johnny Depp was hallucinating and his sobriety had completely collapsed in the final months of his marriage, his ex-wife – fellow actor Amber Heard – testified on Monday in the civil lawsuit between the two.
Heard was back on the stand as the trial resumed in a Virginia courtroom after a one-week hiatus.
Continue reading...Actor takes witness stand in Virginia court and tells jurors trial ‘has been one of the most painful things I’ve ever gone through’
Amber Heard took the witness stand in a Virginia court on Wednesday afternoon during Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against her – a make-or-break moment for the actors in a four-week trial that had so far largely focused on Depp’s version of events during their turbulent 15-month marriage.
“I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is … this is horrible for me to sit here for weeks and relive everything, to hear people that I knew, some well, some not, my ex-husband with whom I shared a life, speak about our lives in the way they have,” she said.
Continue reading...Amber Heard’s attorneys demanded judge dismiss defamation case but Judge Penney Azcarate ruled trial will proceed
Attorneys for Johnny Depp rested on Tuesday after 13 days of testimony in the actor’s $50m defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard. In court in Virginia, Heard’s attorneys demanded the judge dismiss the action.
Without jurors present, lawyer Ben Rottenborn asked the judge, Penney Azcarate, “to strike the plaintiff’s evidence and award summary judgment in whole or in part to Ms Heard”.
Continue reading...American Civil Liberties Union’s general counsel testifies that at least $500,000 came from fund connected to Elon Musk
The ACLU helped Amber Heard draft the Washington Post article accusing Johnny Depp of abuse after the organization was promised a $3.5m donation from her divorce – though at least $500,000 of it eventually came from a fund connected to Tesla founder Elon Musk, jurors in the Depp-Heard defamation trial heard on Thursday.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s general counsel, Terence Dougherty, testified that the organization decided to propose Heard as an ambassador for the group after Heard pledged the sizeable donation over 10 years.
Continue reading...Alejandro Romero’s pre-recorded testimony in the defamation trial left the judge lost for words
The judge in the Johnny Depp v Amber Heard defamation trial was left temporarily lost for words on Wednesday after the court was shown the pre-recorded disposition of a doorman who was driving and vaping as he spoke.
A visibly flummoxed Penney Azcarate described Alejandro Romero’s testimony as “a first” and ordered the court to break early for lunch after the video played.
Continue reading...Actor continues testimony on his life and marriage with Amber Heard, including events that marked the end of their relationship
Johnny Depp’s courtroom exploration of his life and marriage with Amber Heard continued in the US on Wednesday, with the court viewing a photograph of the actor’s partially severed finger.
Depp testified that Heard had become enraged when he had started drinking in Australia during the filming of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise films and had thrown a bottle of vodka at him, severing the top of his finger.
Continue reading...Actor takes stand in defamation trial and denies Heard’s domestic abuse claims, saying ‘I have never struck any woman in my life’
Taking the stand in his libel lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp said her domestic abuse allegations against him were disturbing, heinous and “not based in any species of truth”.
“Nothing of the kind ever happened,” Depp said in court on Tuesday. “Never did I myself reach the point of striking Ms Heard in any way. Nor have I ever struck any woman in my life.”
Continue reading...Couple’s relationship counsellor says Heard would ‘initiate a fight’ at times while ex-assistant says she was ‘belligerent and abusive’
The dueling defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard dug further into the heart of an often toxic and violent relationship on Thursday as jurors heard from the couple’s marriage counsellor, Heard’s former personal assistant and Depp’s addiction specialist.
Dr Laurel Anderson, who was employed by Depp and Heard as a counsellor to discuss their relationship, described “mutual abuse” between the two. She said that, on more than one occasion, Heard had initiated incidents to stop Depp leaving, stemming from her fear of abandonment, according to Anderson. She also said she had seen photos of Heard with bruises.
Continue reading...The British actor, whose messages to Depp regarding the latter’s wife Amber Heard were publicised during a trial in 2020, has commented on the process
The actor Paul Bettany has spoken for the first time about having the text messages exchanged between himself and Johnny Depp concerning Amber Heard read out at Depp’s libel trial.
Bettany, who is currently promoting A Very British Scandal, told the Independent it was “a really difficult subject to talk about” and said he was concerned doing so would “just pour fuel on the fire”.
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