A jury on Wednesday unanimously dominated in Johnny Depp's favor in his multimillion greenback defamation lawsuit towards ex-wife Amber Heard. Moments after the decision was introduced, Depp, who was not current within the courtroom on the time, launched a press release on Instagram, saying that the jury "gave me my life again."
"Six years in the past, my life, the lifetime of my youngsters, the lives of these closest to me, and likewise, the lives of the folks, who for a lot of, a few years have supported and believed in me had been ceaselessly modified. All within the blink of a watch," he wrote, in what seems to be a press release written on a typewriter.
Depp continued that the media threw "false, very severe and felony allegations" at him, triggering an "countless barrage of hateful content material."
"It had already traveled all over the world twice inside a nanosecond and it had a seismic influence on my life and my profession," he mentioned. "And 6 years later, the jury gave me my life again. I'm really humbled."
Depp sued Heard for $50 million for a Washington Put up op-ed she wrote in December 2018 by which she described herself as "a public determine representing home abuse." Heard by no means talked about Depp by identify within the article, however Depp's legal professionals argued all through the trial that he was defamed by its contents.
Heard countersued for twice that quantity, saying that Depp's group had defamed her by saying her abuse claims had been a hoax.
On Wednesday, after listening to six weeks of listening to from each events, in addition to a lot of witnesses, about quite a few claims of violent abuse, the jury agreed on a blended verdict: Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, whereas Heard acquired $2 million. The choose mentioned state legislation caps punitive damages at $350,000, that means Depp's award would whole $10.35 million.
"From the very starting, the objective of bringing this case was to disclose the reality, whatever the final result," Depp continued in his assertion. "Talking the reality was one thing that I owed to my youngsters and to all those that have remained steadfast of their assist of me. I really feel at peace figuring out I've lastly achieved that."
He went on to say that he hopes his "quest to have reality" has helped others who've discovered themselves in his "scenario" to by no means surrender.
"The perfect is but to return and a brand new chapter has lastly begun," he mentioned. "Veritas numquam perit. Fact by no means perishes."