Amber Heard is seeking a new defamation trial against her ex-husband Johnny Depp — claiming the bombshell court battle she lost was stacked against her.
The 36-year-old “Aquaman” actress filed her appeal earlier this month, arguing the exclusion of therapy notes in which she reported being abused resulted in an unfair trial. The evidence had been ruled out as hearsay by Fairfax County, Virginia Judge Penney Azcarate.
“The trial court improperly prevented the jury from considering several separate instances in which Heard reported Depp’s abuse to a medical professional,” Heard’s lawyers wrote in the 68-page document dated Nov. 23.
“If not reversed, the trial court’s exclusion of contemporaneous reports of domestic abuse to medical professionals will make it more difficult for other abuse victims to prove allegations of abuse, and likely deter them from coming forward,” they wrote.
Depp, 59, was awarded a $10.35 million verdict in June after arguing that Heard’s Washington Post op-ed in which she made claims of domestic abuse was defamatory.
Attorneys for Heard also argued the trial should have taken place in California, where the couple once lived together — and not in Virginia, where the Washington Post houses its servers.
Virginia was an “entirely inconvenient forum with no connection to Depp or any meaningful connection to his claims,” the filing states.
The case “should never have gone to trial because another court had already concluded that Depp abused Heard on multiple occasions,” her lawyers added, referencing the 2020 UK ruling in favor of Britain’s The Sun, which Depp had sued for calling him a wife-beater.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star has already filed his own appeal in the case, claiming the one count of defamation that Heard won at the trial was “erroneous.”
“The jury’s emphatic favorable verdict on all three defamatory statements alleged in his complaint fully vindicated Mr. Depp and restored his reputation,” the filing said.
A group of judges will issue a ruling on both claims, and each party will then have a chance to appeal once more.
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