Johnny Depp Settles 'Punch Me In The Face' Assault Lawsuit
Topics: Johnny Depp, Celebrity, US News
Claire Reid
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Johnny Depp, Celebrity, US News
Johnny Depp has settled an assault lawsuit brought against him by City of Lies location manager Greg Brooks.
Brooks accused the 59-year-old Hollywood star of assaulting him during filming for the movie in April 2017.
The lawsuit alleged that Depp had assaulted Brooks outside the Barclay Hotel in Los Angeles after the actor was told filming had finished for the night.
The former location manager claimed Depp had screamed obscenities at him before hitting him twice in the ribs. He also claimed Depp had offered him money to punch him back.
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According to the original lawsuit, Depp told Brooks: "I will give you $100,000 [£85,000] to punch me in the face right now."
Brooks said Depp had created ‘hostile, abusive and unsafe’ working environment.
Brooks claimed he was fired from the movie after he refused to sign release waiver saying he wouldn’t sue.
Now a settlement has been agreed, the case is due to be dismissed next year, according to documents seen by the PA news agency.
The settlement reads: "The settlement agreement conditions dismissal of this matter on the satisfactory completion of specified terms that are not to be performed within 45 days of the date of the settlement.
"A request for dismissal will be filed no later than 1/5/2023."
The settlement comes just weeks after Depp won his high-profile defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard.
The case centred on a 2018 article Heard wrote for the Washington Post titled: “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”
Although the piece didn’t directly name Depp, his lawyers argued it falsely implied he physically and sexually abused the Aquaman actor while they were together.
A unanimous seven-person jury ruled in Depp’s favour and he was awarded $10.35m (£8.2m) in damages.
While Heard won one counterclaim and was awarded $2m (£1.5m) in damages.
Earlier this month, lawyers on behalf of Heard launched an appeal to have the verdict thrown out or a retrial.
The filing claimed that Depp’s team ‘proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms Heard’s statements were actually false’.
The filing also asks the court to investigate whether one juror improperly served on the jury for the trial.
It says that Juror 15 appears to have a 25-year difference in age between their date of birth on court documents and in publicly available information.
In response to the filing, Depp’s lawyers said there was ‘no legitimate basis’ for a new trial and claimed the appeal ‘verges into the frivolous’.
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