Amber Heard has filed a motion to throw out the verdict from her recent civil suit with ex-husband Johnny Depp. The suit was filed by Depp in 2019, who claimed that a 2018 op-ed written by Heard in The Washington Post defamed him. The op-ed never mentioned Depp by name but spoke about the public shaming that Heard received after speaking out about being a victim of domestic violence.
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Incidentally, a British tabloid called Depp a “wife beater” after some of Heard’s claims prior to the civil suit. That led Depp to sue the tabloid. However, Depp lost that lawsuit in 2020 when the presiding judge ruled that Heard was telling the truth.
The Motion Argues The Jury’s Award Was “Indefensible”
In the motion filed on Friday, Heard’s legal team argues that the jury’s award was “excessive” and “indefensible.” The jury awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages to Depp. The judge did, however, reduce the $10 million in compensatory damages to $350,000 due to a state cap.
They also claim that there was a mistrial because of improper vetting of a juror. The court documents state that “Ms. Heard’s due process was compromised.” Juror 15 is listed as being born in 1970 in public databases, but the documents submitted to the courts and attorney teams listed them as born in 1945.
Ms. Heard’s motion claims:
“This discrepancy raises the question whether Juror 15 actually received a summons for jury duty and was properly vetted by the Court to serve on the jury.”
Heard Claims Depp Never Proved “Actual Malice”
Additionally, the motion to throw out the verdict states that the verdict doesn’t match the standard that Depp and his team needed to prove.
Because both Heard and Depp are public figures, proving defamation requires an additional element of “actual malice.” This means that Depp needed to prove that Heard undoubtedly believed that she was lying when she published the Washington Post op-ed.
Depp’s legal team claimed that Heard had gone out of her way to fabricate evidence and that Heard was the abuser. While these points were not proven, there was also a lot of evidence used in previous courtrooms that was suppressed.
Heard’s attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, told CBS that Depp’s legal team was not fighting fairly or considering the cycles of abuse that occur in domestic violence situations.
“The way that Depp’s team approached this was based on ignorance of domestic violence. It completely ignored the cycle of violence.” She said their approach was, “‘oh, she wouldn’t have done this if he had been hitting her.’”
The Jury May Not Have Properly Sequestered
Heard’s attorney told CBS that she believes that there was improper influence from the media. She also mentioned that Depp’s fans may have swayed the jury’s opinion. Depp’s fans had lined up outside the courtroom overnight to watch the trial on numerous occasions.
Jurors are not allowed to look at news or social media regarding cases that they are serving. This is otherwise known as being “sequestered.”
“I think that there were a lot of influences here that were beyond our control,” said Bredehoft. “I think the social media… It was like a Roman Coliseum, is the best way to describe the atmosphere here… I have to believe that the jury, even though they’re told not to go and look at anything… They had weekends, they have families, they have social media, and the ten-day period that we had. How could they not have been influenced?”
Bredehoft said that Amber Heard is “heartbroken” and firmly intends on appealing. She said that one of the first things that Heard said after the verdict was, “I am so sorry to all these women.”
Bredehoft also said that Heard feels as though she let down women everywhere. She said that Heard had so much evidence (when many victims of abuse have none) and yet still wasn’t believed.