Heard ‘absolutely not’ able to pay Johnny Depp $10.4 million
Amber Heard ‘absolutely cannot’ pay more than $10 million in damages to ex-husband Johnny Depp for defaming him in the press, as demanded by a US jury’s verdict on Wednesday, says Thursday the lawyer of the actress.
Johnny Depp emerged victorious from this highly publicized trial, even if the jurors concluded that the two stars had defamed each other.
Asked by the NBC channel to find out if her client could pay the $ 10.4 million in damages, Elaine Bredehoft replied: “oh no, absolutely not”.
The lawyer, who judges that Amber Heard has been “demonized” by Mr. Depp’s legal team, said she intended to appeal the decision.
After some 13 hours of deliberations in a court near Washington, the seven jurors ruled in favor of Mr Depp on all three grounds of his defamation claim, awarding him $10 million in damages and $5 million aggravated damages.
Listen to Geneviève Pettersen’s column at the microphone of Vincent Dessureault on QUB Radio:
Clearly, these five men and two women unanimously felt that Amber Heard had made false statements by describing herself as a victim of domestic violence, and that she had acted “with malicious intent”, even if she did not name not her ex-husband in this text.
The court in Fairfax, Virginia, however, reduced the amount of aggravated damages to $350,000 under the state’s statutory maximum, bringing the amount owed by Ms. Heard to her former debtor to $10.4 million.
The jury also ruled that Johnny Depp, 58, had defamed Amber Heard, awarding her $ 2 million in financial compensation.
The 36-year-old actress confided her “inexpressible disappointment” in a statement on Wednesday after the verdict was announced. “I am devastated that the mountain of evidence was not sufficient to address the far greater power, influence and ascendancy of my ex-husband”.
