Law&Crime Sidebar - BREAKING: Amber Heard Accepts Defeat, Settles Defamation Case with Johnny Depp

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

BREAKING: Amber Heard has reportedly settled the defamation lawsuit with her ex-husband and famed actor Johnny Depp.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. The long legal saga between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp is over, as Amber Heard agrees to pay Depp to settle the case. I'm Anjanette Levy, and this is Sidebar here on Law and Crime. We have some big news in the case of Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard. You know that both sides have been appealing this case. Well, now Amber Heard has announced on her Instagram account that the case has settled.

You may recall that both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were appealing the jury's verdicts. Johnny Depp back in June, jury in Fairfax County, Virginia, awarded him $10.35 million in compensatory and punitive damages for an op-ed that Amber Hurd wrote in the Washington Post back in December of 2018 just about four years ago. And in that op-ed, Amber Hurd said that two years prior, she had become a public figure representing domestic abuse. There was also some discussion in the headline about being a survivor of sexual assault. So there was a lot going on with this op-ed. Amber Hurd at trial said it wasn't about Johnny Depp. But then we heard testimony from people at the ACLU. who said that in their reading of it, the general counsel Terrence Doherty, his reading of this op-ed

in the early drafts made it clear to him that this op-ed was clearly about Johnny Depp. So the jury's verdict basically said that they didn't believe Amber Heard and that they believed she lied in the op-ed with actual malice, meaning she meant to hurt Johnny Depp. On the flip side, Amber Heard was awarded $2 million in damages for the words of Adam Waldman. That is the attorney and friend, advisor of Johnny Depp. Adam Waldman had made a statement or two to the Daily Mail back in 2020, basically saying that Amber Hurd and her friends staged a hoax back on May 21st of 2016, that they roughed up the place before calling 911.

Nothing was reported during that 911 call when the officers responded on two occasions. A few days later, Amber Hurd goes to court. She shows up with a mark on her face and requests a temporary restraining order against Johnny Depp, and she has awarded that restraining order. Johnny Depp, though, maintains he never struck Amber Heard. So it was a trial that had the world watching, and sources familiar with the negotiations tell us that Amber Heard has agreed to pay Johnny Depp $1 million in damages. Now, it sounds a little bit like a bargain, right?

$1 million in damages is what she will pay versus $10.35 million in damages. But Amber Heard is speaking out about this on Instagram, so I thought we should read a little bit of her statement. And it's actually a pretty lengthy statement regarding this settlement. The statement begins. 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. It's important for me to say that I never chose this. I defended my truth and in doing so, my life as I knew it was destroyed. The vilification I have faced on social media as an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimized when they come forward. Now I finally have

have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago on terms I can agree to. I have made no admission. This is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward. Now, she is saying this is not a concession that me paying this $1 million, I'm not conceding anything. But really, when you think about it, if she had lost this appeal, she would have to have paid the $10.35 million. So she's saying, look, I'm not conceding anything. I'm not admitting I lied, but I'm going to pay one million dollars to make this go away. The jury's verdict made it clear. They didn't believe Amber Heard. We remember one of the jurors came forward after the verdict and said basically that the jury believed both sides were kind of abusive to one another. Both Depp and Heard abused one another, but that they felt that Amber Heard was the aggressor in this relationship. Now let's move on. and read a little bit more of this statement. Hurd goes on to say, I make this decision having lost faith in the American legal system where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and

social media fodder. When I stood before a judge in the UK, I was vindicated by a robust, impartial, and fair system where I was protected from having to give the worst moments of my testimony in front of the world's media and where the court found that I was subjected to domestic and sexual violence. In the U.S., however, I exhausted almost all my resources in advance of and during a trial in which I was subjected to a courtroom in which abundant, direct evidence that corroborated my testimony was excluded and in which popularity and power mattered more than reason and due process. In the interim, I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot relive. Even if my U.S. appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a retrial where a new

jury would have to consider the evidence again. I simply cannot go through that for a third time. Now, I think it's important to note that the U.K. trial was a much different trial than the one in the United States. Obviously, first of all, there were no cameras in the U.K. trial. However, in the U.S., there are just different rules of evidence. It's our understanding from what we've heard from people who were in the courtroom in the U.K. that a lot of hearsay testimony was allowed. You know, people were allowed to say, well, yes, I, you know, I said this to so and so and so. That's not allowed in the United States. And in the UK, the Sun newspaper was being sued. Amber Hurd was simply a witness in that case. And so basically, the Sun just had to say that basically they didn't act with any

ill will, that they reported what was presented to them. And the jury found in favor of the Sun newspaper. So Johnny Depp indeed lost that case. Amber Hood goes, on to say she'd like to thank her outstanding appellate and original trial teams for their relentless hard work. I want to thank everyone who has supported me, and I turn my attention to the growing support that I've felt and seen publicly in the months since trial and the efforts that have been made to show solidarity with my story. So that's just a portion of Amber Heard's statement. We, of course, reached out to Johnny Depp's team to see if they have anything to say. We also reached out to his lead counsel, Ben Chew. And Johnny Depp's lawyers, Camille Vasquez and Ben Chie.

released a statement. It reads, 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 jury's unanimous decision and the resulting judgment in Mr. Depp's favor against Ms. Heard remained fully in place. The payment of $1 million, which Mr. Depp is pledging and will donate to charities, reinforces Ms. Heard's acknowledgement of the conclusion of this legal system's rigorous pursuit for justice. So Amber Hurd agreeing to pay Johnny Depp $1 million in damages, announcing this on her Instagram account on Monday.

And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. It is produced by Sam Goldberg and Logan Harris. Bobby Zoki is our YouTube manager. Alyssa Fisher is our booking producer. And Kiera Bronson handles our social media. You can download and listen to Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel.

I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and we will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.