Amber Heard's lawyer Elaine Bredehoft claims that the Aquaman star can't pay $10.4 million USD to Johnny Depp following his victory of his high-profile defamation trial.
Speaking on TODAY, Bredehoft confirmed that Heard will be unable to pay the allotted damages the jury assigned to Depp, going on to state that the actor intends on appealing the verdict. "She has some excellent grounds [to appeal]," Bredehoft said. Heard's lawyer did not specify the nature of the appeal nor when it will be officially filed.
"Really, what happened here is that it's a tale of trials. Johnny Depp brought a suit in the UK, for the same case, and the burden of proof was easier for him there," Bredehoft said. The Pirates of the Caribbean star originally filed a lawsuit against Heard, his ex-wife, after she published an op-ed piece in The Sun which labeled Depp as a "wife-beater." Depp pushed back against the claim, alleging that he was the victim of domestic abuse while he was married to Heard, who has since stated that she only hit him out of self-defense. Heard also claims that Depp both physically and sexually assaulted her during their time together.
When asked about why she felt the jury didn't respond to Heard's claims, Bredehoft said that she believes the Aquaman star was demonized by Depp's legal team. "She was demonized here. A number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed and it caused the jury to be confused," Bredehoft said. "We weren't allowed to tell them about the UK judgment, so the damage is completely skewed. There are no damages. It stopped on Nov. 2, 2020, when the judgment came down in the UK."
While the trial's jury ruled against Heard, the actor also lost in the court of public opinion. Following several explosive pieces of evidence which cast doubt on her claims that she never abused Depp, many of the actor's fans rallied online to defend him. Various online petitions grew in popularity over the course of the lawsuit, several of which sought to have Heard removed from her leading role as Mera in the Aquaman film franchise; One such campaign has amassed over 4.5 million signatures at the time of writing. Similarly, many fans are petitioning for Disney to rehire Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean 6, a film the star claims he was fired from due to Heard's allegations.
Source: TODAY