[imagesource: Jim Lo Scalzo / Pool Photo via AP]

Just when you think you may have heard the last of the Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard defamation trial, along come the newly unsealed court documents.

In total, more than 6 000 pages of pretrial documents have been unsealed and made public, so spare a thought for the journalists and legal eagles who have pored over them to pick out the most shocking claims and allegations.

To reiterate, the jury awarded damages to both, although Depp’s $15 million ($10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million dollars in punitive damages) far outweighed Heard’s $2 million (compensatory damages, with no punitive damages).

Depp will not get that full $15 million amount, regardless of what happens with Heard’s appeal.

The Daily Beast was first out of the blocks, starting with Depp’s legal team possibly wanting to submit Heard’s nudes into evidence:

…Heard’s team argued to the judge that evidence of a number of “irrelevant personal matters” should be excluded from the defamation trial, while alleging: “Mr. Depp inappropriately seeks to introduce evidence of the following Irrelevant Personal Matters: (1) nude pictures of Amber Heard; (2) Amber Heard’s sister Whitney’s reality show video; (3) Whitney and Amber’s past romantic relationships; (4) Amber’s brief stint as an exotic dancer years before she met Mr. Depp and Mr. Depp attempting to frivolously and maliciously suggest or imply that Ms. Heard was at one time an escort.”

There was also the matter of Depp’s damning missing texts.

In 2014, Depp’s then-assistant Stephen Deuters messaged Heard regarding the time Depp allegedly “kicked” Heard while the two were flying on a private jet.

Following the incident, Depp apologised via text to Heard and called himself a “fucking savage” and a “lunatic”:

But Depp’s law firm, Brown Rudnick, could not find any record of the texts in Depp’s iCloud, and looked into whether they may have been, in their words, “deleted.”

Ultimately, the law firm determined they were “missing” for reasons unknown. These texts regarding the “kicking” incident were presented in the U.K. trial but not deemed admissible in the Virginia defamation trial.

That’s the UK trial where a newspaper article calling Depp a “wife beater” was deemed accurate. Judge Mr Justice Nicol said The Sun had proved what was in the article to be “substantially true”.

Also excluded from evidence were texts between Depp and actor Paul Bettany. The two joked about drowning Heard, to which Depp replied, “I will f–k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead.”

Pivoting to E! Online, and some interesting exchanges between Depp and Marilyn Manson revealed in the unsealed court documents:

[Depp’s] attorneys sought to exclude his texts with Manson from the trial, arguing in the unsealed court documents that it would “smear Mr. Depp under a guilty by association theory.”

…the controversial singer referred to now-wife Lindsay Usich as “an amber 2.0.”

…Manson texted the actor that Usich “pulled an amber on me” by seeking a restraining order—something Heard did after filing for divorce from Depp.

Depp responded by advising the singer to “not to give her what she wants”. He also added that this was “sociopathic behavior… it is f–king real, my brother!! My ex-c–t is goddamn TEXTBOOK!!”

You can fill in the blanks between ‘c’ and ‘t’ above.

Another exchange saw Manson telling Depp he was “f–king stressing” about “serious police amber type scenarios”:

 “I don’t know if you are back but I need asylum somewhere because I think the cops might be headed my way.”

Manson has been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women. There’s also the HBO docuseries Phoenix Rising, which includes allegations that Manson “made [his ex-fiancé Evan Rachel Wood] drink his blood, hit her with a swastika-adorned Nazi whip and shocked her private parts”.

Finally, Heard’s legal team claimed Depp suffered from erectile dysfunction in the unsealed documents:

Heard’s lawyers alleged the 21 Jump Street alum suffered from erectile dysfunction and that “such condition absolutely is relevant to sexual violence, including Mr. Depp’s anger and use of a bottle to rape Amber Heard.”

The actress has officially filed a motion at the Circuit Court of Fairfax County to appeal the defamation trial verdict.

A number of legal experts have stated that she is unlikely to be successful.

[sources:dbeast&eonline]