Amber Heard is not going down without a fight!
By now, you know that the 36-year-old actress was sued for defamation by Johnny over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018, in which she discussed her experiences as a domestic abuse survivor without ever naming him. But after a six-week-long trial, a jury found that Amber defamed the Pirates of the Caribbean alum, thus awarding him $10 million in damages. Meanwhile, she was given $2 million for claims made by his lawyer.
Following the verdict, Amber has made it pretty clear that she was not satisfied with the way things turned out and vowed to carry out an appeal – no matter how much it would cost her, which is a lot, mind you! As we previously reported, the judge decided that if the Aquaman star appealed the verdict, she must put up a bond in the full amount she owes Johnny with an annual 6 percent interest. That interest payment would be $480,000, per The New York Post. YIKES!
Related: Johnny Depp Ordered To Pay The ACLU $38K For Amber Heard Evidence
For someone who is reportedly broke, her options do not look good right now! However, it looks like she might have found a way to get around having to throw down a ton of cash.
According to TMZ, she filed an extensive legal memorandum in Virginia on Friday asking for the judge to do one of three things – either set aside the verdict, dismiss the complaint, or order a new trial. Talk about an ultimatum!
One of her biggest arguments in the doc alleges there wasn’t enough evidence from Johnny’s legal team to prove that The Washington Post op-ed harmed his career. Amber’s lawyers argue that his career was already on the line, including his roles in the Pirates franchise, long before the op-ed dropped. Per Law&Crime, the memorandum stated:
“Mr. Depp did not have a contract for Pirates 6, there was media coverage that Mr. Depp would not be in Pirates 6 as of October 25, 2018 – two months before the Op-Ed, Mr. Depp’s agent testified that it was very likely Mr. Depp would not be in Pirates 6 as of the Fall 2018, and Mr. Depp testified that he would not have agreed to play a role in Pirates 6 for ‘$300 million and a million alpacas.’”
Furthermore, her legal team claimed that Johnny’s attorneys failed to prove she acted with any malice when she wrote the op-ed, nor demonstrated that she did not actually believe the words she had written in the piece.
Another reason? Amber’s attorney claimed that one of the jurors was not legit and may not have been properly vetted by court officials! The juror, identified as Juror #15, was listed as having their birth year as 1945. However, the person allegedly was much younger than that, supposedly having been born in 1970! As the court doc states, per Law&Crime:
“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.”
As a result, Amber wants the court to investigate the situation. And if the juror was not truthful, then they want the verdict to be tossed and start the whole trial again.
It is important to note that this is NOT an appeal of the case. She reportedly has until July 24, 2022 to file and pay the suspension bond in order to move forward with an appeal. Johnny’s attorney, Ben Chew, has since told TMZ that he expected this move from Amber’s team and there is nothing “substantive” in her motion.
We’ll have to see what happens next as a judge has not yet ruled on the filing. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments (below)!
[Image via WENN]
