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Credit: Warner Bros.Despite last year’s ruling that saw Johnny Depp lose his libel trial against a British Tabloid, the lawsuits between the Pirates and the Caribbean star and his ex-wife, Hollywood actress Amber Heard, are still ongoing.
With next year’s defamation suit inching closer, Heard has once again pulled the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) into the $50 million legal battle with a court-issued subpoena. Here is what her team is asking to see.
Actor Johnny Depp and Amber Heard met on the set of The Rum Diary (2011) and married in 2015 after Depp’s relationship with Vanessa Paradis ended. However, the two split shortly after in 2016, and since the pair have been tied in an ongoing battle with issues relating to a series of domestic violence and domestic abuse allegations from both parties.
The libel trial that ensued after The Sun newspaper published that Depp was a “wife-beater” ended earlier this year. The court’s ruling in favor of The Sun and its parent company, News Group Newspapers, marked the end of Depp’s Grindelwald in the Harry Potter spin-off franchise, JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, as well as throwing his future as the popular Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean into uncertainty. Depp subsequently lost his appeal in March 2021.
Following the libel case, the ex-couple will head to trial once again next year to contest the $50 million defamation suit that Depp has issued against Heard. Relating to her 2018 Op-Ed in The Washington Post, Depp is suing Heard for the huge sum. In the run-up to the case next year, Heard has repeatedly attempted to get the lawsuit thrown out of court, while the Judge has continued to deny Heard’s team’s requests.
In a win for Depp’s lawyers, the Judge recently granted his request for Heard to reveal her monetary donations to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) following claims that the $7 million divorce settlement she received would be entirely donated both to the ACLU and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
In a new move from Heard, the Aquaman star has subpoenaed the LAPD for information regarding the night five years ago when the domestic assault allegation was reported to the police. We can see, via Deadline, just what Heard’s team is requiring.
In a subpoena approved by Fairfax County courts clerk John Frey on September 20, Heard and her legal team […] want to scoop up seemingly everything they can on the department and a quartet of officers who dealt with a 2016 domestic disturbance incident between the then-married Rum Diary co-stars in downtown L.A.
The report goes on to list the officers involved, and the equipment and data the legal team requires as the defamation suit moves forward.
“all documents and communications of any nature respecting any investigation into whether Officers Saenz and Hadden followed LAPD policy, procedures and/or protocols in responding to the call at Eastern Columbia Building on May 21, 2016 respecting Ms. Heard.”
“all documents and communications of any nature respecting any investigation of, and any disciplinary actions taken against Officers Saenz and Hadden for any conduct up through December 2016.”
“the audit trails for any deletions, modifications, or viewing of the body camera footage uploaded to evidence.com by Officers Saenz and Hadden during the period October 1, 2015 through August 1, 2016.” It goes on to state that “this request includes all documents that show any deletions, modifications or viewing up the present for footage uploaded during that timeframe.”
Heard came under scrutiny earlier this year after bodycam footage from the night in question revealed an entirely different set of circumstances than she and others initially reported. Deadline goes on to report more of what Heard’s subpoena is warranting access to:
“all communications and documents reflecting all communications between Officers Hadden and/or Saenz and Officers Diener and/or Gatlin on May 21 and 22, 2016.”
As well as wanting to know if Officers Diener and Gatlin had been issued bodycams or other equipment from “the LAPD kit room,” the subpoena is asking for “the Watch Commander’s log for May 21, 2016, and May 22, 2016, reflecting or concerning the shifts of Officers Saenz, Diener, Gatlin, and/or Hadden.”
The defamation case is scheduled for April 2022 in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Heard will next be seen in the Aquaman (2018) sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2022) from director James Wan, despite #FireAmberHeard and #JusticeForJohnnyDepp often trending online. One Warner Bros. exec, producer Peter Safran, said the court battle controversy had no play in whether Heard would return as Mera in the DC Extended Universe.
Meanwhile, Depp is seemingly out of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as well as Warner Bros. Fantastic Beasts. Recently, the Jack Sparrow actor received a lifetime achievement award, the Donostia Award, from the San Sebastian Film Festival and spoke out about cancel culture, declaring “no one is safe”.
Are you following the Depp/Heard legal saga? Let us know in the comments.