Deadline and other media reports: Depp sued his ex-wife Hilde defamation case has been announced.
And most recently, Amber Heard asked the court to vacate the verdict in the case through a memo: “Ms. Heard respectfully requests that the court vacate this jury verdict in favor of Mr. Depp and against Ms. Heard in its entirety and proceed to dismiss the indictment or order a new trial.”
The 43-page document filed by the Shields legal team with the Fairfax County Circuit Court, the court hearing the case, gives multiple reasons why “the judgment should be vacated.
If alleging improper jury review in this case, claiming that there may have been wrongdoing, ask the court to investigate this.
The document states that the information submitted by juror No. 15 at the time of the jury selection indicated that he was born in 1945, but this information was inconsistent with the facts and that he was actually born in 1970.
Therefore, the document challenges the selection process of the jury without verifying the identity of the members, stating that “it is unclear whether Juror No. 15 was ever summoned or qualified to perform services on this panel.
The document also argues that the jury’s decision (awarding Depp $10 million in compensatory damages + $5 million in punitive damages, for a total of $15 million, while the judge added that in Virginia, the maximum amount for one item of punitive damages is $350,000, meaning Depp gets $10 million + $350,000 = $10.35 million; Shields gets $2 million) is “excessive” and should be reversed according to the law and evidence.
And citing the 2016 divorce process between the two and the 2020 case in which Depp sued ‘The Sun’ for defamation, he said the ruling in the case was contradictory, such as Shields being awarded $2 million for defamation and Depp being awarded $15 million for defamation.
The paper also challenges the verdict’s statement that “the jury found that Shields’ ‘conduct was so malicious or reckless as to meet the high standard for a public figure to allege defamation,'” stating that to find a “showing of malice “, Depp must prove that at the time Shields published the ‘Washington Post’ paper, she did not believe she had been domestically abused or had doubts about it, but Depp did not present any evidence that Shields did not believe she was a victim of domestic abuse.
“To the contrary, the evidence overwhelmingly supports Ms. Shields’ belief that she was the victim of domestic abuse by Mr. Depp. Therefore, Mr. Depp has not met the legal requirement of ‘actual malice’ and the judgment should be reversed.”
Depp’s attorney Ben Chew responded to Courthouse News about the document, saying, “As we expected, it’s just longer and without substance.”
Related Post: Amber Heard formally files court papers to appeal.
