Less than a month after Johnny Depp filed his formal appeal of some of theverdict in his sweeping defamation case against Amber Heard, his _Rum diary_co-star now has put her own brief in the Virginia courts.
And Heard’s new-ish lawyers are flying the flag of the First Amendment andtaking trial court Judge Penney Azcarate to task, repeatedly.
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“The trial court erroneously refused to dismiss this action on the ground of_forum non conveniens_ , based on its mistaken conclusion that Depp’s claimsarose in Virginia because the Washington Post’s servers are located here,”said Jay Ward Brown and David L. Axelrod in the November 23 filed document.“The trial court also erred in overruling Heard’s demurrer, in which sheargued that the challenged statements are non-actionable expressions ofopinion and are not reasonably capable of conveying the alleged defamatoryimplication,” the Constitutional law specializing DC-based Ballard Spahr LLPattorneys added (read the appeal here).
“That holding, if allowed to stand, will undoubtedly have a chilling effect onother women who wish to speak about abuse involving powerful men.”
Further lambasting Judge Azcarate for improperly instructing the jury in theFairfax County case that end almost entirely in Depp’s favor on June 1, and“excluding highly probative evidence and by admitting irrelevant andprejudicial evidence,” Heard’s appeal seeks to have the more than $10 millionverdict against her reversed or tossed out for a new trial.
“This case also should never have gone to trial because another court hadalready concluded that Depp abused Heard on multiple occasions,” the 68-pagebrief of appellant states. “After Depp filed this case, the United KingdomHigh Court of Justice ruled in a separate defamation action brought by Deppthat Heard’s abuse allegations were true,” the appeal notes of the ultimatelyunsuccessful libel suit the ex- Pirates of the Caribbean star broughtagainst Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun tabloid in 2018 for calling him a “wife-beater” in print.
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“The trial court should have given preclusive effect to that 129-pagedecision, which followed a three-week trial at which Depp, Heard, and 24 otherwitnesses tested,” the ___Aquaman_ star’s latest filing says.
Depp sued his ex-wife Heard in March 2019 for $50 million over a late 2018_Washington Post_ op-ed under Heard’s byline. In the piece, the American CivilLiberties Union ambassador wrote about becoming a “public figure representingdomestic abuse.”
While Heard never actually mentioned her ex-huband by name in the piece in theJeff Bezos-owned broadsheet, the litigious past Depp insisted the op-ed“devastated” his already dwindling career. In his initial suit and subsequentfilings, Depp declared he was in fact the one who was abused in the couple’srelationship. The actor repeated that assertion on the stand during theVirginia trial. Oddly, Depp said nothing of the sort during he and Heard’srestraining order-loaded 2016 divorce – even before the $7 million settlementbetween the two effectively forbid him from doing so.
Failing to get the matter tossed or moved to another jurisdiction likeCalifornia Heard countersued Depp for $100 million in the summer of 2020. InNovember 2020, the UK High Court handed Depp a stinging loss in the caseagainst The Sun. Since then, attempts at an appeal of that side of theAtlantic has proven a dead letter office for Depp.
After both parties promising to appeal within hours of the jury’s verdict onJune 1, in early November, Depp filed his own appeal in the Virginia case.“This Court should reverse the judgment on Ms. Heard’s Counterclaim as to theApril 27 Waldman Statement, but should otherwise affirm the judgment in Mr.Depp’s favor,” declared the November 3 filing in Virginia’s Court of Appealsof the $2 million that the Virginia jury awarded Heard in a countersuit claim.
Besides that single counterclaim in the seven-week defamation trial, theseven-person panel found heavily for Depp. Fueled by fans in and outside thecourt, the past Oscar nominee was awarded $10 million in compensatory damagesand $5 million in punitive damages. Before releasing the jury, Judge Azcaratereduced the punitive damages figure to $350,000, the maximum allowed in thestate.
Striking at the time, that $2 counterclaim award could prove the Achille’sheel for the initial case, at least if Heard’s legal team get their way.
“The resulting jury verdict against Heard on all of Depp’s claims cannot bereconciled with the jury verdict against Depp on Heard’s counterclaim,”declares Heard’s appeal from just before Thanksgiving.
“To find in favor of Depp, the jury must have concluded that Depp did notabuse Heard and that Heard knowingly lied in accusing him of abuse,” the densedocument says. “But, to find in favor of Heard, the jury must have concludedthat Heard told the truth about being a victim of domestic abuse by Depp.Accordingly, the verdict against Heard cannot stand.”
With both Depp and Head having now filed their respective appeals, you’d thinkthings would move along at a brisk pace, at least by the measure of theAmerican justice system.
Not so much in this case.
Under Virginia law, a group of judges will now decide the merits of bothappeals. Depending on how that goes, and who is left disappointed, Heard andDepp can take the matter to the Commonwealth’s Supreme Court. Which means itwill be years before this is settled, if it ever really is.
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