Johnny Depp wins defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard

 

Johnny Depp has won his defamation trial against his former wife Amber Heard. 

After less than three days of deliberation, the seven-person panel has issued a verdict to the packed courtroom that the Aquaman star did defame with actual malice the former Pirates of the Caribbean actor in a late 2018 Washington Post op-ed Heard penned about becoming the “public face of domestic abuse.”

Depp was seeking $50 million in damages, but the jury has awarded him $15 million comprising of $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. 

But Judge Penney Azacarate quickly reduced the punitive damages figure to $350,000, the maximum allowed in the state.

The jury did find for Heard in one of her claims, awarding her $2 million in compensatory damages and no punitive damages. 

In her $100 million countersuit, Heard claimed that she was defamed by comments made by Depp’s attorney Adam Waldman. The jury rejected all but one of her claims that Waldman’s claim that Heard and her friends “set” up Depp with “an ambush, a hoax.”

Depp said he was "truly humbled" by the jury's verdict, saying the allegations had had a "seismic impact" on his life and career.

"From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome", he said.

"Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me. I feel at peace knowing I have finally accomplished that." 

Heard said she was "heartbroken" at the verdict and said it "sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated".