LA Times
Johnny Depp won his defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, a Virginia jury decided Wednesday, with cheers going up outside the courtroom from the crowd of Depp supporters who gathered there. Inside the courtroom, a black-clad Heard kept her eyes downcast as the jury’s concurrent decision was read, saying that she had lost the bulk of her countersuit. He had sued her for $50 million, and she countersued for $100 million. The jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages in the trial. However, the punitive damages were immediately reduced by Judge Penney Azcarate to Virginia’s statutory cap of $350,000. In Heard’s countersuit, the jury awarded $2 million in compensatory damages to her after finding one of her points valid: that former Depp attorney Adam Waldman had defamed her when he told a tabloid she and her friends created a hoax that included roughing up her apartment to look worse for police. Depp spoke about the verdict in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. “False, very serious and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me. It had already traveled around the world twice within a nanosecond and it had a seismic impact on my life and my career,” he said, in part. “And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”
