The season’s most popular Hollywood trial has ended, and those on the “Justice for Johnny” team can rest easier. Although the Pirates of the Caribbean star didn’t get the $50 million payout his team went for, he still won all of his defamation claims against ex-wife Amber Heard, while she won only one of her three counterclaims.
The six-week trial ended May 27 and the seven-member jury took about 13 hours to determine the fate of the famous former couple. As Liberty Nation Legal Affairs Editor Scott D. Cosenza, Esq. reported, “Johnny Depp won a total of $15 million in damages on three counts of defamation by Amber Heard.” On the other side, Heard was granted $2 million because of defamatory statements by Depp’s former attorney, Adam Waldman, who said the Aquaman star’s accusations against her former husband were a “hoax.”
Although Depp was awarded $15 million, he will be getting less than that due to a ruling in favor of Heard and a statutory cap. “Part of Depp’s total award came in the amount of a $5 million punitive damage award which was immediately reduced by the judge according to Virginia’s statutory cap on that category of damages,” Mr. Cosenza explained. “Absent any appeals, Ms. Heard will have to pay Mr. Depp $8,350,000.”
From the beginning, Depp said he filed this lawsuit to get to the truth: “My goal is the truth because it killed me that all these people I had met over the years … that these people would think that I was a fraud.” Heard’s 2018 op-ed in a prominent Washington newspaper painted Johnny as an abuser, which he said affected his career:
“It [the op-ed] had already traveled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and career. And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”
After the verdict, Johnny, who was in the UK at the time, released a statement:
“My decision to pursue this case, knowing very well the height of the legal hurdles that I would be facing and the inevitable, worldwide spectacle into my life, was only made after considerable thought. I am and have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and colossal support and kindness from around the world. I hope my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up.”
Heard, who was somber during the reading of the verdict, said, “I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband.”
Amber Heard (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Two years before writing the opinion piece, Heard filed a restraining order against Depp. In the op-ed, she said that “two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.” The jury decided that the actress had been referring to Mr. Depp and that she was lying. Now, Heard claims the court’s decision will be a blow to other survivors of domestic abuse. In a statement, she opined that the verdict:
“[S]ets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.
“I believe Johnny’s attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the U.K. I’m sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American – to speak freely and openly.”
Despite having won the lawsuit, Mr. Depp’s career will continue to suffer for a while, according to some. It will take time for the hoopla to die down and the scandal to be wiped away. But Johnny is optimistic about his future, leaving us with this thought:
“The best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun. Veritas numquam perit. Truth never perishes.”
