FAIRFAX, Va. (CN) — An attorney for actress Amber Heard Thursday asked a Virginia judge to embrace findings from a U.K. court that Johnny Depp, Heard's ex-husband, abused her on a dozen occasions — slapping her, punching her, shaking her, shoving her, choking her, throwing bottles at her, dragging her by the hair and making her fear for her life.
If the conclusions of the U.K. court are embraced, Depp, 58, would not be able to contend that he was defamed by a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which Heard described facing pushback after coming out as a survivor of domestic abuse. Depp’s $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard, 35, would end in dismissal.
“What is the issue here?” asked Heard’s lawyer, Elaine Charlson Bredehoft of the firm Charlson Bredehoft Cohen and Brown, during a hearing today. “The issue is whether he [Depp] committed domestic violence.”
And the matter of whether Depp abused his wife has been adjudicated in the U.K., she said.
Depp's lawyer, Ben Chew of Brown Rudnick, characterized the motion for dismissal as futile and frivolous. Heard’s attorneys, he added, “ignored the flashing red lights” in bringing it before the court and should be sanctioned. He argued that the U.S. and U.K lawsuits do not arise from the same conduct. The two cases are different: set in different countries with different disclosure and evidentiary rules. The "Aquaman" actress, he said, “fed selective evidence, much of it false, to the [U.K.] defendants.”
Depp's U.S. case, filed in 2019, names Heard as a defendant and is set in Virginia where the Washington Post is printed. His case in the U.K. was filed in 2018 against News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and its editor, Dan Wootton, and focused on an article in which Depp was described as a "wife beater."
Depp lost the U.K. case, and while Heard was not a defendant, her testimony was central. She was on the stand for four days. “She had to be there,” Bredehoft said. “She was a critical witness.” Later during the hearing, the attorney noted that if Depp should file suit against other publications, Heard will again be called to the witness stand.
"It is hard on the victim to keep testifying,” she said.
Chief Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate took the matter under advisement.
This is the third time that Heard’s legal team have attempted to get Depp’s case thrown out of court. The first attempt, led by attorney Eric M. George of the Los Angeles law firm Browne George Ross, argued that Virginia is the wrong venue, and none of the relevant conduct occurred there. Chief Judge Bruce White, now retired, ruled against the motion.
The second attempt, led by noted civil rights attorney Roberta Kaplan, argued that Depp’s lawsuit should be dismissed because “the specific statements for which it seeks to impose defamation liability are not actionable as a matter of law.” White also ruled against it.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
-
Iron Mike airplane assault April 22, 2024
