After a six week trial in which Johnny Depp & Amber Heard fought over details of their brief marriage, both sides stated the exact same thing to a jury Friday: they want their lives back.
Heard said that he had “ruined his life telling the world that she was a survivor from domestic abuse at Mr. Depp’s hands,” Camille Vasquez, Depp’s lawyer, told the jury during closing arguments in the libel case against his ex-wife.
Heard’s lawyers meanwhile claimed that Depp destroyed Heard’s life when he launched a smear attack against her after she divorced him. He was also publicly accused of assaulting her in 2016.
J. Benjamin Rottenborn, Heard’s lawyer, stated that “In Mr. Depp’s world, you don’t leave Mr. Depp.” “If you do, he’ll launch a campaign against you of global humiliation.”
Depp hopes the trial will help him rebuild his reputation. However, it has become a spectacle of a vicious union with broadcast cameras in courtroom recording every twist and turning to an increasingly rapt crowd. Fans weighed in via social media and queued up overnight for the best courtroom seats.
Benjamin Chew, Depp lawyer, stated that Mr. Depp’s case was not about money. “It’s about Mr. Depp’s reputation and releasing him from the prison where he has been living for six years.”
Depp is suing Heard in Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court for $50 million over an op-ed that she published in The Washington Post in 2018. It described herself as “a public figure representing Domestic Abuse.” His lawyers claim that he was defamed in the article, even though it did not mention his name.
After Depp’s lawyer dismissed her claims as a hoax, Heard filed a counterclaim for $100 million against the former star of “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Although the counterclaim received less attention during the trial, Elaine Bredehoft, Elaine Heard’s lawyer, said that it allows the jury to compensate Heard from the abuse Depp caused her even though they had split.
She told the jury, “We are asking you to finally hold him responsible.” He has never taken responsibility for anything in his entire life.”
The civil jury of seven members began deliberations Friday at 3:00 p.m. and ended about two hours later. They will resume on Tuesday.
Depp claims he didn’t strike Heard, and that she made up the abuse allegations. He claimed that he was physically attacked multiple times by Heard.
Vasquez stated that there is an abuser in the courtroom but not Mr. Depp.
Heard testified during the trial about more than a dozen instances of sexual and physical assault she claimed Depp had inflicted upon her.
In her closing remarks, Vasquez noted that Heard had revised her testimony after she stated she was struck the first time. Heard claimed Depp struck her after she accidentally laughed at one his tattoos. Heard originally said that it took place in 2013, after a year of romance and courtship. However, she later changed her mind and stated that it occurred in 2012.
Vasquez stated, “Now she has suddenly erased an whole year of magic” in the courtroom.