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Amber Heard asked for a new trial in the Johnny Depp case, but the judge said no
Friday, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's lawyers were unable to settle the case at the last minute. This means that the appeals process could take a long time and cost a lot of money.
During the hearing, which was held in Fairfax County, Virginia, but Depp and Heard were not there, Judge Penney Azcarate made the final decision in the defamation case.
A representative for Heard, who is 36 years old, said that the actress from "Aquaman" plans to file an appeal.
"If you are not guilty, you don't ask for a pardon. "And if you know you are right, you don't turn down an appeal," she told The Post in a statement on Friday.
After 21 days, the case will be sent to the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and the parties will have 30 days to file a notice of appeal.
Under the judgment order that was written into the docket Friday afternoon, Depp and Heard will have to pay their judgments of $2 million and $10.35 million, plus 6 percent interest per year.
A source who was there told The Post that the judge wrote down Depp's version of the verdict in full, ignoring all of Heard's suggested changes, and that Depp's lawyers did not ask for an injunction against his ex-wife.
The source says that the court also said that if Heard wanted to appeal, she would have to put up a bond for the full amount of the judgment plus $480,000 in interest payments.
On June 1, a jury in Virginia found that Heard unfairly portrayed Depp as an abuser in a newspaper op-ed piece, hurting his reputation and career. The jury gave Depp $15 million in damages, but the amount was cut to $10.35 million because of limits set by state law.
Even though the jury sided with Depp on all three of his defamation claims, they also found that the actor's former lawyer had defamed Heard in one case and gave her $2 million in damages as part of her countersuit.
In an interview with "Good Morning America" earlier this month, Depp's lawyer Benjamin Chew hinted that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star might not want his ex-wife to pay him millions of dollars in damages if she agreed not to file an appeal.
“We obviously can’t disclose attorney-client communications, but as Mr. Depp testified … this was never about money for Mr. Depp,” Chew told George Stephanopoulos when asked about Heard’s fear of being left penniless.
“This was about restoring his reputation — and he’s done that,” Chew added.
One of Heard's lawyers, Elaine Bredehoft, said on NBC's "Today" that the "Aquaman" actress couldn't pay the $8.35 million she owed Depp.
Early in June, sources told The Post that the 36-year-old actress is "broke" because she had to pay so much for her lawyers during the six-week trial.
When asked if the actress had enough money to pay the jury's verdict, Bredehoft said, "Oh no, definitely not."
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