ACLU says Johnny Depp owes it $86k in legal fees

Johnny Depp’s authorized woes look to have no finish in sight — with the actor now squaring off with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) above $86,000 in lawful service fees.

Just after a bombshell trial, a Virginia jury awarded Depp $10.35 million in damages, finding that his ex-wife Amber Read defamed him in a Washington Put up op-ed ghostwritten by the ACLU.

The non-revenue was subpoenaed in the case, and a New York point out choose purchased the charity to change around paperwork and develop witnesses, such as Main Running Officer Terence Dougherty for a deposition.

The ACLU is now suing Depp for $86,253.26 in lawful costs in Manhattan Supreme Court— the sum the charity suggests it price to comply with the subpoenas.

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This bundled reviewing more than 7,500 paperwork and generating a few witnesses, including Dougherty, for lengthy depositions, according to the ACLU. 

The piece, which was penned by an ACLU attorney, did not establish Depp by title but stated he had abused her.

Although the ACLU was not a bash to Depp’s defamation accommodate versus Heard, the charity’s purpose in drafting and pitching the op-ed to the Washington Article was central to the litigation. Read asked for that the piece’s publication date coincide with the release of her movie “Aquaman.”

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The charity’s tally bundled the expense of generating a “privilege log” that recognized 160 items that ended up withheld thanks to a “frequent fascination privilege in excess of communications” amongst ACLU attorneys and Heard’s lawyers.

The actor’s lawful crew has accused the ACLU of “coordinating and assisting Ms. Read in litigating Mr. Depp’s defamation accommodate” then charging him for it, they wrote in court papers. 

Lawyers for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star referred to as the $86,000 sum “exorbitant and unreasonable” but agreed to pay back $1,096.67 for 3rd-bash knowledge web hosting charges.

 In the most current motion submitted June 14, the ACLU argued that Depp’s subpoenas were being overly “wide and burdensome,” and the charity’s planning of a “privilege log” to comply with the discovery needs are correctly affordable.

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The ACLU arrived beneath fire during the trial, with critics calling the charity complicit in Heard’s alleged deception. 

Right after Heard pledged $3.5 million to the charity – 50 percent of her $7 million divorce settlement, the group named her an ambassador on women’s rights and gender-based violence.

She later on claimed on a Dutch Tv set show that she had specified away her overall divorce payout as promised: half to the ACLU and the other 50 % to the Children’s Clinic of Los Angeles.

Daughetry admitted in his deposition played for jurors that Listened to had only directly donated $350,000. The organization credited her with donating $1.3 million — the bulk of which came from her ex-boyfriend, tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Depp’s lawyer, Ben Chew, argued in courtroom that the ACLU assisted Read coverup her untrue claims, expressing the charity “played a reprehensible function in this circumstance.”

It was also exposed during the demo that Read only coughed up $250,000 of the $3.5 million she pledged to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

A juror, who spoke anonymously to Excellent Morning The united states, known as her fake claim she had created the donations a “fiasco.”

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“It’s one detail, Your Honor, for her to stiff the ACLU,” Chew explained in court. “It is fairly an additional for her to are unsuccessful to honor her obligation to the Children’s Clinic of Los Angeles, with unwell and dying little ones, and that she failed to do as nicely.”

The ACLU was at the time viewed as a bastion of cost-free speech — notably defending the proper of neo-Nazis to rally in Illinois.