Steve Helber/Pool through Reuters
The authorized groups for Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have just one extra week to show their respective purchasers’ former spouses defamed them in what has been an alternately disturbing and surreal civil trial in Virginia.
During the last 5 weeks, Fairfax County jurors have heard damning allegations of home violence and broken appearing careers. Depp, in his $50 million lawsuit, alleged Heard “devastated” his profession when she penned a 2018 Washington Put up op-ed. Within the piece, which didn't point out Depp by title however got here two years after she sought a restraining order towards him, Heard recognized herself as a home violence survivor.
In her personal $100 million counter lawsuit, Heard alleges that Depp and his authorized crew defamed her by launching a “smear” marketing campaign towards her, which included calling her allegations an “abuse hoax.”
All through the trial, each actors have insisted that they had been victims of home abuse throughout a relationship that formally dissolved in 2017—and denied any wrongdoing of their very own. To show his level, Depp introduced in a slew of witnesses to argue that the Pirates of the Caribbean actor was abused by his ex-wife and that he was successfully disadvantaged of tens of millions in work within the aftermath of Heard’s op-ed.
“There have been arguments, and issues of that nature, however by no means did myself attain the purpose of placing Ms. Heard in any method, nor have I struck anybody in my life,” Depp informed the jury whereas he was on the stand.
However final week, it was Heard’s flip to current witnesses to corroborate her allegations that Depp was the abuser of their relationship, that he was pushed to violence within the throes of dependancy, and that his monetary woes started lengthy earlier than she advocated for survivors.
“Within the civil enviornment, the typical litigant is searching for cash to compensate them for wrongdoing,” Alan Holcomb, a Georgia trial lawyer, informed The Day by day Beast. “Right here, if proof exhibits that Mr. Depp had vital monetary points previous to Ms. Heard’s op-ed, then a jury can take that into consideration in figuring out whether or not Mr. Depp is entitled to in compensation, and if that's the case, how a lot compensation he's entitled to.”
Heard’s witnesses final week provided what specialists described as compelling testimony to again up her claims of being sexually and bodily assaulted—and poke holes in Depp’s model of historical past. These are the important thing moments and patterns of conduct that his crew will now attempt to refute or a minimum of depart within the rearview in the event that they hope to win.
The London Fields Physique-Double Incident
Amber Heard spent two days on the stand final week describing how a relationship she thought was a fairytale shortly dissolved after Depp repeatedly verbally and bodily attacked her. A type of cases, Heard claimed, was when the pair had been watching a pre-release model of London Fields, a 2018 movie she did with Billy Bob Thornton, at a distant French chateau.
Abruptly, Heard testified, Depp slapped her throughout the face and punched her within the jaw in a blind rage after a girl that seemed to be her participated in a intercourse scene. However that girl was a physique double, not Heard, the actress stated.
“I didn't truly movie the scene. He demanded that we watch it,” Heard recalled on the stand. “So I've an extremely jealous man who's already upset with me for breaking the ‘rule’ about taking part in a intercourse scene. He was irate. He referred to as me a liar and a whore.”
Kimberly Lau, a New York defamation lawyer, famous to The Day by day Beast that this occasion is a major instance of Heard’s claims that Depp was abusing her, and the extra cases she will cite of alleged abuse, the higher her argument can be.
Heard’s allegations had been solely bolstered by testimony from Depp’s former agent, Tracy Jacobs, who stated through video deposition that the actor’s disdain for the movie was so extreme that he even tried to close down manufacturing. Jacobs, who was Depp’s agent for about three a long time, informed jurors that she remembered that the request got here in a sequence of offended emails about Heard’s character’s nude scenes within the movie.
“It's in Amber’s contract that there can be no nudity and her fucking brokers are weak and insipid,” Depp wrote in a single electronic mail to Jacobs, which was proven in court docket. “Will you please name these motherfuckers and also you and Jake get on this instantly?”
In a second electronic mail proven to jurors, Depp added: “It should be shut down or I'll sue them eighteen methods from fucking Sunday. These persons are nobodies on this enterprise and they need to be made to know that we'll destroy them immediately.”
Holcomb, a Georgia trial lawyer, stated Depp’s legal professionals will possible concentrate on the “physique double and erratic conduct throughout closing arguments.”
“Testimony relating to both matter goes to the center of Mr. Depp’s defamation declare,” he stated. “He has to show that Ms. Heard made defamatory statements towards him. A press release rises to that stage whether it is each false and supposed to hurt the fame of one other. The reality, nevertheless, is a whole protection to defamation.
“In consequence, these violent tales—if credible to the jury—reduce towards Mr. Depp’s claims. We are able to count on the closing argument for Mr. Depp to undermine the veracity of those allegations.”
The Staircase Incident
Whereas a number of of Heard’s former buddies confirmed they noticed Depp verbally berate the actress and noticed her with accidents, the one individual to testify they noticed the actor bodily hurt his ex-wife was her sister, Whitney Henriquez.
On the stand final week, Henriquez testified that she witnessed a struggle between Heard and Depp on March 23, 2015, after Heard got here into her room to allege that her then-husband was dishonest on her. Explaining to jurors that she lived within the penthouse subsequent door to the couple in Los Angeles, Henriquez stated that she went into her sister’s home to talk with Depp—who denied the affair earlier than admitting that if he was dishonest on his spouse, “Amber made me do it.”
“I’m behind the steps, with my again to the steps, and that’s when Johnny runs up the steps,” Henriquez stated in regards to the incident. “And once more, I’m dealing with Amber. He comes up behind me and strikes me within the again… He hits me within the again. I hear Amber yell, ‘Don’t hit my fucking sister.’”
“By that point, Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly within the face with the opposite whereas I used to be standing there,” Henriquez stated, including that Depp’s safety guard broke the couple aside earlier than she escorted Heard again to her penthouse.
As they left, Henriquez stated she might hear Depp calling them vulgar names, and “screaming like an animal.”
Heard has beforehand admitted to hitting Depp throughout the identical incident, although she stated she did so to guard her sister.
Quickly after the struggle, Henriquez—who admitted to doing cocaine with Depp on a number of events—stated she left the penthouses the actor owned in Los Angeles after he requested her to signal an NDA. Depp later accused her of promoting tales about him to the press, which Henriquez adamantly denied on the stand.
However Travis McGivern, Depp’s still-employed safety guard who testified on the actor’s behalf, supplied a distinct account of the incident earlier within the trial. In keeping with McGivern, the “comparatively peaceable dialog” devolved after Heard threw a Crimson Bull can at Depp, prompting a “verbal onslaught [that] continued from each of them."
“Mr. Depp was giving pretty much as good as he acquired at that time,” McGivern stated, including that Heard tried to spit on the actor. “He was offended and agitated.”
“Out of the nook of my eye, I noticed a fist and an arm come throughout my proper shoulder and I heard and noticed a closed fist contact Mr. Depp within the left facet of his face. That was Ms. Heard's fist,” McGivern added, noting that he escorted Depp out of the condominium for his “security.”
For Manny Arora, a legal protection lawyer who's at present representing Anna Delvey, the conflicting, detailed tales in regards to the staircase incident will drive jurors to easily determine whom they discover extra plausible: Heard’s sister or Depp’s present bodyguard.
“This complete challenge relies on credibility,” he informed The Day by day Beast.
The Extent of Depp’s Drug Abuse and Erratic Habits
Whereas Depp was on the stand, the actor brazenly admitted that he had struggled with medication up to now—but additionally claimed that he by no means used medication to “social gathering” in his life. However testimony from a number of of Heard’s witnesses final week painted an image of a troubled life-style outlined in some moments by wanton substance misuse.
Their testimony mirrored that of Heard, who stated medication and alcohol—and paranoid jealousy—had been key elements in turning her husband right into a “monster” that made her worry for her life. She stated that in their relationship, Depp as soon as sexually assaulted her whereas performing a “cavity search” in her vagina for cocaine and that he even used hard-to-obtain medication like quaaludes. In one other harrowing occasion, Heard stated Depp repeatedly penetrated her with a liquor bottle throughout a three-day bender on a 2015 journey to Australia
“He’s only a jealous man,” testified actress Ellen Barkin, who spoke through video deposition about her transient relationship with Depp that included getting a wine bottle tossed in her route. “Controlling…. I had a scratch on my again as soon as that acquired him very, very offended, as a result of he insisted it got here from me having intercourse with an individual who wasn’t him.”
Bruce Witkin, a former longtime good friend and bandmate of Depp’s, additionally stated in a video deposition that Depp’s substance abuse was so extreme that he beneficial that the actor go to remedy and get sober. He claimed that he noticed Depp do cocaine a number of occasions, together with with Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. By way of Depp’s romantic relationships, Witkin stated that typically the actor had a “jealous streak,” as soon as getting envious of Nicolas Cage and Adam Ant for realizing his former spouse.
“In my expertise, it’s deep-rooted points he’s coping with,” Witkin, who additionally stated he noticed bruises on Heard’s arm, added. "It had nothing to do with Amber, for my part.”
Heard’s sister additionally testified about witnessing Depp hurl a steak knife at his assistant after a 2013 flight to London—and stated she noticed him eat a ziplock bag stuffed with thriller drugs “to see what would occur.”
“He laughed about it,” Henriquez stated in regards to the medication, including that Depp was identified to partake in cocaine, weed, MDMA, and shrooms. “If he was utilizing or if he was consuming, there was nearly all the time a struggle.… He could be sober for somewhat bit, after which nearly simply as shortly fall off the wagon.”
Henriquez corroborated a few of Heard’s claims, together with that Depp held considered one of his Yorkies, Boo, out of a transferring automobile whereas everybody within the automobile froze in worry. Depp has denied the allegation, calling the canine incident “an absolute utter falsity.”
“I’m shocked Henriquez was allowed to testify to what appears to quantity to unhealthy character proof,” Lau stated. “Usually, testimony about particular acts of 1’s fame for unhealthy character are usually not allowed in civil trials. However because it was allowed with out objection, it might go to Depp’s asserted reputational hurt, which is at challenge for functions of his damages.”
Depp’s Profession and Cash Woes Previous to the Op-Ed
The testimony that arguably spoke most on to the crux of Depp’s defamation swimsuit, nevertheless, got here within the type of new particulars from the actor’s exiled inside circle about cash woes that preceded any of the allegations of abuse from Heard—and her 2018 op-ed.
Jacobs, Depp’s former long-time expertise agent, stated that whereas her shopper was as soon as the “the most important star on the planet,” his shine “dimmed” due to his “unprofessional conduct on set.” She claimed that his conduct included being unprepared for work—which resulted in him needing an earpiece to be fed his strains—along with alcohol and drug issues.
“I'd get yelled at. I by no means stated to him, ‘You’re a tough shopper.’ However I used to be very sincere with him and stated you’ve acquired to cease doing this, it’s hurting you. And it did,” she stated.
The agent added that because the movie business is a “small group” and “folks discuss,” Depp’s poor fame finally took a toll.
Depp’s authorized crew has beforehand claimed that Disney dropped the actor from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise simply 4 days after Heard’s op-ed was printed and that the piece was the rationale why. Tina Newman, a manufacturing government at Walt Disney Studios, stated through video deposition that she by no means noticed any paperwork inside the firm that referred to Heard’s op-ed—and that it by no means performed a job of their choices round Depp.
Jacobs stated she was in the end fired in 2016, noting that Depp “terminated primarily everybody in his life, and I used to be alongside for the experience, I suppose.”
Joel Mandel, Depp’s former enterprise supervisor who sat for a video deposition for Heard’s crew beneath subpoena, additionally testified about how the actor’s lavish life-style grew as he landed massive roles—and was, due to this fact, more durable to maintain when he stopped getting them. He stated that at one level, Depp spent $10,000 a day on his private safety guard—and spent the identical quantity month-to-month on nurses and medical doctors devoted to his restoration.
“The spending ranges had grown very, very, very giant, and required that stage of extremely excessive revenue to be maintained,” Mandel stated. “And when it dropped off, that disconnect grew to become untenable.”
Ultimately, Mandel stated, it grew to become tough to even discuss to Depp about his cash issues.
“His monetary circumstances in 2015 had reached a degree the place I used to be extraordinarily involved and on a really common foundation was expressing that concern,” Mandel stated. “And it appeared as I elevated my stage of expressing that concern, there was anger directed, you realize, in my route. And so, my warnings in 2015 that we had been in very dire circumstances weren't met very favorably."
Lau, the defamation lawyer, famous that this testimony “clearly goes to reputational hurt and damages” and it'll even be one thing that Depp’s crew focuses on because it makes an attempt to rebound from some powerful testimony.
“Depp has positioned his fame, together with his fame earlier than Heard’s op-ed, at challenge on this case by asserting his fame has been broken by a minimum of $40 [million] because of Heard’s op-ed,” she added. “If Heard is profitable in exhibiting that Depp’s fame had declined previous to her op-ed, a jury could cut back any damages award even when it determines Heard is answerable for defamation.”