Less than a month before the long delayed trial in Johnny Depp’s multimillion defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard is set to start, the former Pirates of the Caribbean star took a hit today in his efforts to hobble his ex-wife’s defense and $100 million countersuit.
In a short-ish hearing on Thursday, Judge Penney Azcarate ruled against Depp’s summery judgement motion and said the Aquaman star can in fact utilize the Old Dominion’s anti-SLAPP statute in the matter.
While today’s outcome doesn’t grant Heard immunity for what she wrote in the 2018 Washington Post op-ed that kicked off this brawl between the Rum Diary co-stars, it does mean that her attorneys can argue she is deserving of such immunity in front of the jury — and that undercuts a large swath of Depp’s legal strategy going into the April 11 starting trial.
Part of the irony here is that today’s ruling not only empower’s Heard’s defense and her countersuit claiming defamation from Depp and his representatives, but that the litigious Oscar nominee sued his ex-wife and the Jeff Bezos’ own Post, in Virginia because of the state’s relatively light handed anti-SLAPP law. In no small part because of the $50 million suit Depp launched in March 2019, the state strengthened that law. Now, Virginia’s anti-SLAPP measure ensures immunity from civil liability for statements about matters of public concern that would be protected under the First Amendment.
The Washington Post has long been removed as a defendant in this case.
Unlike a past attempt by Depp to slip out of Heard’s 2020 countersuit, Judge Azcarate on Thursday said that Heard’s WaPo piece about domestic violence does rise to the level of an issue of public concern. That is vital for the actress as it reframes the legal dispute.
Depp’s team has pushed the point that the defamation is of a private nature and therefore not covered by the anti-SLAPP, which stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, law.
It should be noted that Heard’s op-ed never actually mentions her ex-husband by name.
Of course, coming out of a 2016 split that involving restraining orders, a $7 million payout and more, Depp has insisted the article implicates him. Claiming “Ms. Heard is not a victim of domestic abuse, she is a perpetrator,” Depp’s spring 2019 suit even alleged the op-ed cost him a lucrative role in a potential relaunching of the Pirates franchise by Disney.
Both Depp and Heard have weathered ups and downs in the matter.
Heard failing in her moves to get the matter moved to California and dismissed, before countersuing Depp in September 2020. After losing his UK libel suit against Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun tabloid in November 2020 for calling him a “wife beater,” and denied an appeal in March 2021, Depp also came up short in January 2021 in his desire to see Heard’s big bucks countersuit tossed out.
Now the real show is about to begin.
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