Johnny Depp Hit In Unpaid Bodyguards Suit; Claims Of Drug Use & “Chaos”
Already facing multi-million-dollar legal battles with his former business managers and former lawyers, Johnny Depp now looks to have to seek protection from two of his ex-bodyguards.
“Terminated” back in 2016 and then rehired in a new employee capacity after several years working for the Murder On The Orient Express actor, Eugene Arreola and Miguel Sanchez today hit Depp with a multi-claim lawsuit over unpaid wages and working conditions. As with the ongoing big bucks dust-ups with The Management Group and the Bloom Firm, this action pulls back the curtain on Depp’s private life and excesses, perhaps damningly.
“In early 2016 Plaintiffs began to notice a stark change in Depp and the atmosphere on his Hollywood Hills compound,” the jury trial-seeking-complaint filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court revealed (read it here). “Depp began making sudden and drastic changes to his staff and management team, causing a significant financial crunch for everyone surrounding Depp, except for Depp himself,” the paperwork also said. With allegations of “chaos,” a “financial hurricane” and more, this is language very familiar to those who have followed the other lawsuits and their tales of excess and the consequences overlooked.
“Often times Plaintiffs were forced to protect Defendant Depp from himself and his vices while in public,” the duo claim. “An incident at a local nightclub involved Plaintiffs alerting Depp of illegal substances visible on his face and person while preventing onlookers from noticing Depp’s condition,” the failure to pay wages, wrongful termination and unlawful business practices claiming filing added.
“As a result of the toxic and dangerous work environment and the constant labor code violations of their employers, Plaintiffs were forced to leave their employment despite the fact that they enjoyed many of the people they worked with and have no ill will toward Johnny Depp,” the experienced and dedicated bodyguards state.
“After years of happily working for Johnny Depp and his family, my clients found themselves in unsafe and unacceptable situations once Edward White took the reins,” attorney Tamar Arminak told Deadline today of Depp’s business partner, who is also a defendant in the new case. “As a result of White’s control and mismanagement, Depp owes my clients for significant unpaid wages,” the Glendale-based lawyer declared.
Having gone through a couple of law firms and attorneys in recent months like his Pirates of the Caribbean character Captain Jack chugs back the rum, Depp is set to go to trial in August against TMG. Whether or not that actually occurs is up in the air as a scheduled deposition in the January 2017 filed $25 million case by Plaintiff Depp has been postponed several times due to his rotating cast of attorneys.
While he may or may not still be working with the Oscar nominee, Washington DC-based lawyer Adam Waldman did not respond today to request for comment on this latest suit. As with the two other suits, this one from Arreola and Sanchez calls Depp’s financial stability into account, again.
As well as facing an unpaid commissions cross-complaint and foreclosure move from the well established TMG, Depp is also being sued back by his former longtime lawyers at Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman LLP. Depp went after the Hollywood heavyweights for $30 million in October 2017, declaring that the attorneys were in cahoots with TMG to rip him off after years of loyal service and seemingly wild spending by the well compensated star.
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