In an attempt to turn the tide in his legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic, Johnny Depp lost again and could end up costing the first Pirates of the Caribbean star up to $ 100 million.
While Depp is awaiting word on whether his offer for a UK defamation trial will be granted, a Virginia judge rejected the Oscar nominee’s desire to see Amber Heard’s counterclaims rejected by the court. Hoping to take advantage of a new anti-SLAPP law in the state, Depp sought to see a series of statements made by himself and at least one of his lawyers about the truth or “farce” of Heard’s long-standing abuse allegations during the couple’s short-lived marriage deleted from the case.
Related Story
Johnny Depp wishes ‘A Better Time Ahead’ after ‘Hard’ 2020 in a Christmas message for fans
No way, says Fairfax County Judge Bruce White.
Depp and attorney Adam Waldman’s comments in the media in recent years “imply that Mrs. Heard lied and perjured when she appeared in court in 2016 to obtain a temporary restraining order against Mr. Depp,” White wrote in his January 4th opinion (read here). “Furthermore, they imply that she lied about being a victim of domestic violence,” he adds with a nod to the end of 2018. Washington Post Opinion article Heard wrote about domestic violence that started Depp’s $ 50 million defamation suit a few months later.
“In light of the #MeToo Movement and today’s social climate, falsely claiming abuse would certainly ‘harm [Ms. Heard’s] reputation in the common estimation of humanity ‘, ”continued White, citing another case for definition. “Therefore, this Court considers that the statements contain the ‘sting’ requirement for an actionable defamation action.”
“While Mr. Depp’s statements (and those of his lawyer) can be understood as his opinion of what happened, these statements, however, imply that Mr. Depp did not abuse Mrs. Heard,” adds the judge. “These statements must survive questioning because whether Mr. Depp abused Mrs. Heard is a fact that can be proven to be true or false.”
After numerous delays (some related to the Covid-19 pandemic), the initial case is currently set to go to trial on May 3. Not having Depp’s case on file, Heard doubled down and filed his $ 100 million counterclaim last summer. This case now also appears to be on trial later this year.
That said, not everything was green lights and parking spaces for the Aquaman star this week.
Like Depp, Heard failed to get his statements protected by the anti-SLAPP enacted by Virginia in February 2020. Likewise, Heard lost his bid under the Virginia Computer Crimes Act to claim that his ex-husband tried to taint his name.
“The request does not demonstrate that social media accounts communicated obscene language, suggested obscene acts or threatened illegal or immoral acts,” White said of the online bot army that Heard claims Depp attacked in an effort to free her from a Aquaman franchise. “Instead, it appears that Mr. Depp sent these statements, in particular, to two of his friends, and Mrs. Heard did not claim that Mr. Depp intended for her to see them.”
Still, almost two months after being fired by Warner Bros (with full payment) from Fantastic animals franchise as a result of losing his UK defamation case against Rupert Murdoch owned The sun, Depp has not gained significant traction in any of his current cases.
Granted, the Hollywood Vampires guitarist got White’s approval last month for his The Rum Diary co-star to deliver her decade-old prison record and documentation related to how she allocated a $ 7 million divorce settlement set aside for charity in 2016. However, in other large portions of this “wide range of irrelevant discoveries , broad and privileged, ”(To quote Heard’s opposition filed on December 11), Depp was rejected by the Virginia courts as he had been on a previous occasion in a similar lawsuit.
Perhaps more important to Depp’s tarnished and worn-out reputation and career, the UK Court of Appeal has yet to respond to the actor’s fervent Christmas Eve plea for a retrial on that side of the lake.
Litigious Depp sued The sun in a column by his executive editor that there was “overwhelming evidence” that the actor was a “women beater”. After a 16-day trial in July in the High Court that saw Depp and Heard negotiate charges over their conduct during their turbulent relationship, Judge Andrew Nicol ruled on November 2 that The sunthe statement was “substantially true”.
As no appeal was granted, Depp changed direction towards salvation in the form of a retrial.
“This was a very public trial, reached by a single judge, making devastating discoveries of extremely serious crimes committed, and where it had broader implications for the general public, particularly victims or unjustly accused of alleged domestic violence. ”Wrote Depp’s UK lawyer (barrister) David Sherborne to the Court of Appeals late last month.
Nicol “concluded that the appellant was guilty of serious physical assault without taking into account or even acknowledging that Mrs. Heard had been false in her evidence, without testing her report against documentary and other witness evidence, and without making any conclusions that did not believe these witnesses, ”added former legal representative of Donald and Melania Trump and Tony and Cherie Blair, among many others
“The judge failed to adequately assess his credibility by reference to documentary evidence, photographs, recordings or the like,” Sherborne said in his December 24 correspondence.
It remains to be seen if this is enough to see British courts clean up and go to another trial. What is clear is that there will be a lot more mud in the UK and the USA between Depp and Heard for a long time – and this could be the biggest stage for the former for a while.