弗吉尼亚州里士满艾梅柏·希尔德的律师要求法官驳回她前夫提出的诽谤案中对她1035万美元的判决约翰尼·德普，认为判决没有证据支持，其中一名陪审员可能没有经过法院的适当审查。
在周五提交的审后动议中，赫德的律师称陪审团6月1日裁定德普获得1000万美元的补偿性赔偿和500万美元的惩罚性赔偿是“过度的”和“站不住脚的”他们要求法官撤销判决，驳回德普的诉讼，或者下令重新审判。判决后，法官立即根据州上限将赔偿金减少到35万美元。
2018年12月，德普在《华盛顿邮报》上撰文称自己是“代表家庭虐待的公众人物”，她在费尔法克斯县巡回法院起诉诽谤德普的律师声称这篇文章对他进行了诽谤，尽管文章从未提到他的名字。
为期六周的电视审判变成了一场奇观，为他们不正常的婚姻提供了一个窗口。大部分证词集中在希尔德声称她受到了德普的身体和性虐待。希尔德描述了十几起所谓的袭击事件，包括在澳大利亚的一场打斗——德普当时正在澳大利亚拍摄《加勒比海盗》续集——德普失去了中指指尖，希尔德说她被一个酒瓶子性侵了。
德普说他从未打过赫德，她是施虐者。
德普必须证明他从未侵犯过希尔德，她的专栏文章诽谤了他，而且她写这篇文章是有恶意的。
在他们的审后动议中，赫德的法律团队认为，要发现赫德有实际的恶意，德普必须证明在赫德的文章发表时，她不认为自己受到了虐待。
“相反，压倒性的证据支持赫德女士认为她是德普先生虐待的受害者，”赫德的律师在他们的动议中说。
赫德的律师还要求法官调查“潜在的不当陪审员服务”，声称被选为陪审团成员的陪审员之一在陪审团选择过程之前提交给律师的文件中被列为1945年出生，但在公开信息中被列为1970年出生。
赫德的律师在他们的动议中说:“这种差异提出了一个问题，即15号陪审员是否确实收到了担任陪审团职务的传票，并经过了法院的适当审查，可以加入陪审团。”
德普的律师没有立即回应置评请求。
陪审团还在希尔德对德普的反诉中判给她200万美元，发现希尔德被德普的一名律师诽谤，该律师指控她制造了一个详细的骗局，包括将这对夫妇的公寓弄得一团糟，让警察看起来更糟。
在某种程度上，这次审判是德普在英国对一家英国小报提起诉讼的重演，此前他被描述为“打老婆的人”2020年，该案的法官裁定该报胜诉，因为他发现希尔德在描述虐待时说的是实话。
Heard seeks to throw out verdict in Depp defamation trial
RICHMOND, Va. --Amber Heard's lawyers have asked a judge to throw out the $10.35 million verdict against her in the defamation case filed by ex-husbandJohnny Depp, arguing that the verdict was not supported by the evidence and that one of the jurors may not have been properly vetted by the court.
In post-trial motions filed Friday, Heard's attorneys call the jury's June 1 award of $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages to Depp “excessive” and “indefensible.” They ask the judge to set aside the verdict and dismiss Depp's lawsuit or order a new trial. Immediately after the verdict, the judge reduced the compensatory damages to $350,000 under a state cap.
Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” Depp's lawyers alleged he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned him by name.
The six-week televised trial turned into a spectacle that offered a window into their dysfunctional marriage. Much of the testimony focused on Heard's claims that she had been physically and sexually abused by Depp. Heard described more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia — where Depp was shooting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel — in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.
Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser.
Depp had to prove that he never assaulted Heard, that her op-ed piece defamed him and that she wrote the article with actual malice.
In their post-trial motions, Heard's legal team argued that to find that Heard had actual malice, Depp would have had to show that at the time Heard's article was published, she did not believe she had been abused.
“Instead, the evidence overwhelmingly supported Ms. Heard believed she was the victim of abuse at the hands of Mr. Depp,” Heard's lawyers say in their motion.
Heard's lawyers also ask the judge to investigate “potential improper juror service," alleging that one of the jurors who was chosen to serve on the jury was listed as being born in 1945 in documents given to the attorneys before the jury selection process, but is listed as being born in 1970 in publicly available information.
“This discrepancy raises the question whether Juror 15 actually received a summons for jury duty and was properly vetted by the Court to serve on the jury,” Heard's lawyers said in their motion.
Depp's attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The jury also awarded Heard $2 million in her counterclaim against Depp, finding that that Heard was defamed by one of Depp’s lawyers, who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up the couple’s apartment to look worse for police.
In some ways, the trial was a replay of a lawsuit Depp filed in the United Kingdom against a British tabloid after he was described as a “wife beater.” The judge in that case ruled in the newspaper’s favor in 2020 after finding that Heard was telling the truth in her descriptions of abuse.
