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The jury decided unanimously in favor of Amber Heard’s ex-husband Johnny Depp on Wednesday, June 1, finding that Heard intentionally and maliciously defamed the Pirates of the Caribbean star when she wrote her 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post about her experiences as a domestic abuse survivor. Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive damages to Virginia’s statutory cap of $350,000.
Johnny’s lawyers, which included attorney Camille Vasquez, made the case that it was actually Johnny, not Amber, who was the victim of abuse. The Oscar nominee had sued his ex-wife for $50 million, and she countersued for $100 million.
Amber Heard — Amber’s Lawyers Say She Can’t Afford To Pay Johnny Depp The $10.4M
Amber Heard is currently owing Johnny Depp the sum of $10.4 million in compensatory damages after losing to Depp in court on June 1. But according to Amber’s lawyer, the Aquaman actress, 36, cannot afford to pay up the significant cost to her former spouse.
Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, who represented Amber throughout the defamation trial, confirmed that to Today‘s Savannah Guthrie during an interview on Thursday, June 2. “Oh no, absolutely not,” Elaine told Savannah, who asked if Amber can pay Johnny, 58, the $10.4 million in damages.
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Amber Heard issued a statement on Johnny Depp’s defamation win on Wednesday, commiserating what the verdict means for other victims of domestic violence.
“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words,” Heard said in a statement that she also released on social media. “I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband.”
“I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women,” the actress continued. “It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.”
“I believe Johnny’s attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of freedom of speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK,” Heard said, citing the libel lawsuit Depp lost against The Sun in 2020. “I’m sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American — to speak freely and openly.”
Amber Heard — Heard’s Lawyer Reveals Heard Plans To Appeal The Verdict.
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In that same interview, Elaine revealed that Amber — who had defamed Johnny in a 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post, per the jury’s ruling — will “absolutely” try to appeal the verdict. “She has some excellent grounds for it,” the lawyer explained. “We even had tried to get the UK judgment in to dismiss his case because he already had his shot. That’s one of the issues. But also, there was so much evidence that did not come in.”
Melissa Lerner, an attorney at Los Angeles-based Lavely & Singer P.C., told E! News of what could ultimately transpire “Everyone has an opportunity to challenge the trial, there’s a series of motions that can be filed depending on what strategy is chosen. I presume it would be Amber’s side that would be more incentivized to try to challenge the trial and the outcome.”
But the general next step in the proceedings is that “the judgment will be entered by the court and there will be a court order requiring payment of that money,” Lerner said. “And essentially, she’ll need to comply with that, and if she doesn’t then Depp could come back to court and require the court to enforce the judgment.”
Elaine believes that the jury was influenced by the pro-Johnny social media spectacle and that affected their decision. “They went home every night, they have families,” she told Savannah. “The families are on social media. We had a ten-day break, there is no way they couldn’t have been influenced.”
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