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LOS ANGELES – Actress Amber Heard is intriguing the jury verdict in her defamation case against her ex-husband, Raiders of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp. Lawyers for the 36-year-old Heard, who featured in the film Aquaman, filed a notice of appeal with the Virginia Court of Appeals on Thursday.
"We believe the court made some errors that stopped a just and fair verdict constant with the First Amendment," Heard"s spokesperson said, referring to the constitutional amendment that protects free speech. As a result, we intend to appeal the verdict," they said in a statement. "While we recognise that today"s filing will spark a Twitter firestorm, there are steps we must help to make both fairness and justice."
In June, a Virginia jury awarded Depp $10 million in damages after concluding that a 2018 newspaper column written by Heard was defamatory.
Depp, 59, sued Heard in connection with a Washington Post op-ed in which she did not name him but described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse."
Heard, who had filed a counter-suit, was awarded $2 million. The verdict came after a six-week trial that was based on hotly contested accusations of domestic abuse. The case, which was live-streamed to millions, revealed gruesome and intimate details about the private lives of Hollywood celebrities.
Earlier this month, a judge denied Heard"s request for a new trial, citing a case of mistaken identity in which one of the seven jurors was not really the man called up for jury service but his son.
Penney Azcarate, the judge who ruled over the trial, denied Heard"s lawyers" request to set aside the judge"s ruling and declare a mistrial.