Johnny Depp’s $50m defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard

[no1novice]

He's settled the assault case....

Johnny Depp settles assault case with ‘City of Lies’ location manager.

By Emily Selleck

July 12, 2022 | 1:06pm
Johnny Depp has reached a tentative settlement in his 'City of Lies' lawsuit


Johnny Depp’s legal team has reportedly reached a settlement with “City of Lies” location manager Gregg “Rocky” Brooks, who alleged the actor punched him twice while on set in 2017.

According to Variety, Depp, 59, will no longer need to appear in front of a judge and the lawsuit is expected to be dismissed once the settlement is completed.


Reps for Depp did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star was originally scheduled for a civil trial in Los Angeles Court on July 25 after Brooks sued him in 2018.


According to court documents obtained by Page Six at the time, Brooks filed the suit on July 6, 2018, accusing the actor of “inflicting emotional distress” and assaulting him twice in the rib cage.

Sources familiar with the production claimed that things took a turn after Depp took over directing a scene on a closed-off street in downtown Los Angeles, adding that when the permit ran out, Depp allegedly wanted to keep the cameras rolling.

Amid tension to extend wrap time, Depp allegedly got in Brooks’ face, yelling, “Who are you? You have no right!” followed by, “I’ll give you $100,000 to punch me right now!”

Johnny Depp’s lawyers reportedly reached a settlement with a “City of Lies” crew member who claimed he was punched by the actor on a 2017 film set.


The settlement comes following Depp’s victorious win in his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard for the 2018 Washington Post op-ed she penned. The jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

After the six-week trial concluded in Norfolk, Va., Depp created a TikTok account to thank his fans for their loyalty and support, noting that it was time to “move forward” together 
Gregg “Rocky” Brooks sued Depp in 2018.

“We’ve been everywhere together, we have seen everything together. We have walked the same road together. We did the right thing together, all because you cared,” he wrote.

“And now, we will all move forward together. You are, as always, my employers and once again I am whittled down to no way to say thank you, other than just by saying thank you. So, thank you. My love & respect, JD.”

pagesix.com/2022/07/12/johnny-depp-settles-assault-case-with-city-of-lies-location-manager/

 

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[chaz]

Wanker. I would have loved for that to have gone to court.

[trixie]

^^ Me too. And he could have settled it a long time ago but then it might have been used against him in his case against Amber. It must've been a really good settlement for the guy to agree to drop the case.

[no1novice]

Amber Heard Sets Her 16-Point Grounds for Appeal
The actor, who was recently spotted in Spain, retained David L. Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown of Ballard Spahr for the appeal.

On Tuesday, Amber Heard filed an appellate brief, listing 16 grounds for appeal, four months after a jury awarded her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, $10.3 million in damages.
During the trial, which ended in June, Depp claimed he had been defamed by a 2018 op-ed Heard wrote at the behest of the ACLU in support of victims of domestic abuse. The opinion piece did not refer to Depp by name, but he successfully argued that readers could infer she was talking about him in two of its sentences, and in its headline, “Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence—and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” The jury also awarded Heard $2 million in damages for her countersuit over a statement that Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, made, in which he called her claims of abuse a “hoax.” From the end of the case, it was expected that Heard would appeal.
According to documents obtained by Vanity Fair, the grounds for appeal include everything from lack of “clear and convincing evidence” for actual malice, the standard whereby defamation cases are decided, to the trial court’s failure to invalidate the damages that the jury assigned after it found both Heard and Depp had defamed each other, an “inherently and irreconcilably inconsistent” thing.
Some of the grounds had already been mentioned either in court or in posttrial interviews by her former representation Elaine Bredehoft, so there were few surprises. Several of the points have to do with evidence admitted that should not have been, and evidence that was not admitted that should have been, including various communications with medical professionals as well as with employees, friends, and family.
In another point, the filing reads, “The trial court erred in allowing Mr. Depp to argue or suggest at trial that the jury could award damages based on statements or conduct occurring prior to the publication of the challenged op-ed.” That is, Depp was suing over the op-ed and thus claiming he lost work and was owed damages because of it, but Depp led members of the jury to believe that Heard was on trial for statements or events prior to that article’s publication in the Washington Post in 2018 (they reached a settlement for divorce in 2016).
In August, a spokesperson for Heard announced she had parted ways with Bredehoft and had retained David L. Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown of Ballard Spahr to handle the appeal, while Ben Rottenborn of Woods Rogers would stay on as cocounsel. Ballard Spahr defended The New York Times against former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s defamation case, and won, suggesting that they would help frame the appeal more firmly around First Amendment rights.
A spokesperson for Heard told Vanity Fair in August that “a different court warrants different representation, particularly as so much new evidence is now coming to light.”
The filing arrives in the Virginia court on the heels of Depp’s appearance stateside. He was photographed signing autographs in New York, while here with Jeff Beck for a North American tour. He played in New Jersey on Tuesday night.

www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/10/amber-heard-sets-grounds-for-appeal

[lindsaywhit]

Good for her.

[MsDark]

I'm totally here for people finally getting called out and held accountable for their decades of shitty and entitled behavior. Especially previously untouchable famous men in hollywood.

I'll bet there's all kinds of "settlements" in the skeleton closets.

[sputnik]

Amber Heard Says She Has Decided to ‘Settle’ Johnny Depp Defamation Case
The long-running legal battle was heading for its next chapter in an appeals court, but Mr. Depp’s lawyers said Ms. Heard has agreed to pay $1 million to end it.



Johnny Depp and Amber Heard at the defamation trial in April. Referring to the prospect of a new trial, Ms. Heard wrote, “I simply cannot go through that for a third time.”Credit...Associated Press

By Julia Jacobs

Dec. 19, 2022

Updated 12:30 p.m. ET

The actress Amber Heard said on Monday that she did not plan to go forward with her appeal of the defamation case involving her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, writing in an Instagram post that she had decided to settle the long-running dispute following a defeat at trial earlier this year.



In a statement, Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez, lawyers for Mr. Depp, said Ms. Heard agreed to pay $1 million to end the case — far less than the jury verdict requiring her to pay more than $8 million in damages.



In June, the seven-person jury in Virginia found that Ms. Heard had defamed Mr. Depp when she described herself in a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” The jury awarded Mr. Depp more than $10 million in damages, but it also found that Mr. Depp had defamed Ms. Heard through a comment made by his lawyer, awarding Ms. Heard $2 million.



Both sides had appealed the parts of the case that each had lost, indicating a long and costly battle was coming in Virginia’s Court of Appeals.

But Ms. Heard said on Monday that she did not wish to continue the case, citing a financial and psychological toll.

“After a great deal of deliberation I have made a very difficult decision to settle the defamation case brought against me by my ex-husband in Virginia,” her post said.

In their statement, Mr. Depp’s lawyers sought to counter any possible perception that the agreement was a victory for Ms. Heard, writing that the $1 million payment “reinforces Ms. Heard’s acknowledgment of the conclusion of the legal system’s rigorous pursuit for justice.”



“We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear throughout this process that his priority was about bringing the truth to light,” the statement said. “The jury’s unanimous decision and the resulting judgment in Mr. Depp’s favor against Ms. Heard remain fully in place.”



Mr. Depp’s lawyers said he planned to donate the payment to charity.



Lawyers for Ms. Heard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

For weeks, the livestreamed trial became an internet preoccupation, with much of the vitriol targeting Ms. Heard, whose claims of domestic violence and sexual assault became the subject of memes and mockery. In her post, Ms. Heard indicated that the online abuse was a factor in her decision to not see her appeal through.



“The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimised when they come forward,” the statement said. “I make this decision having lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder.”



She said in the post that the terms of the agreement did not restrict what she could say about the case.



Mr. Depp has repeatedly denied abusing Ms. Heard, and throughout the trial, he portrayed her as the aggressor in the relationship.



Mr. Depp and Ms. Heard have been locked in legal proceedings around the claims for years. In Britain, a judge had ruled that there was evidence that Mr. Depp had repeatedly assaulted Ms. Heard. That ruling came in a libel suit that Mr. Depp had filed after The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper, called him a “wife beater” in a headline. The judge in that case had ruled that the defendants had shown that what they published was “substantially true.”



Ms. Heard said in her post that she was not willing to see the claims aired in a court again — a possible outcome if her appeal was to succeed.

“I simply cannot go through that for a third time,” Ms. Heard said in her post, later writing, “I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill — one that is not just financial, but also psychological, physical and emotional.”



Since Mr. Depp’s victory in Virginia, he has tiptoed back into the public eye, appearing in a fashion show backed by Rihanna and working on films.



Ms. Heard has remained almost entirely out of the spotlight. In federal court, she has been battling her insurance company, which has been seeking to avoid responsibility for shouldering the costs of the jury verdict. It was unclear whether Ms. Heard would ask for the insurance company to take responsibility for the $1 million payment.

[dilligaf]

He is a disgusting pig. Hopefully he can manage to leave her alone now.

[trixie]

*sigh* Well, I can't say I blame her. This would've cost her tons in attorney fees and she might lose and have to pay anyway. It's not like she has the finances to risk it. And $1m instead of $8m is a good deal. So I guess she gives up the $2m she was awarded?

[dilligaf]

Maybe that is it, if she won 2 million and owes him 1 million maybe its a wash.

[sputnik]

i think the settlement cancels out all the previous awards and the final balance is amber pays johnny 1 million. at least that's how i understood it.

[greysfang]

Good, I'm sick of their shit.

[MsDark]

"Mr. Depp's lawyers said he planned to donate the payment to charity"

I think we need to see the receipts on this one.  

But not only do I think we never will....I don't think anyone will go after him publicly about this the way they did her.  

[trixie]

Oh, I think he will, but only to bring more attention to the fact she didn't. I wouldn't doubt he donates it to the children's hospital she pledged. But not the ACLU, lol.