Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s legal teams filed their final arguments Friday in defamation cases against the former couple. (Steve Helber / Associated Press)
Amber Heard is not really asking for the $ 100 million for which she sued Johnny Depp. His lawyer said on Friday that they simply asked for that amount to send a message to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star after he asked for half of that amount when he sued her for defamation.
This information reached a Virginia courtroom on Friday, when the former spouses’ legal teams filed their final arguments in their defamation suit cases.
“Johnny Depp sued for $ 50 million and we sent him a message saying, ‘Well, then we’ll sue for $ 100 million because look what you did to him.’ ‘lawyer Elaine Bredehoft to the jury, talking about compensatory damages. “We ask that you only look at the damages in this case and be fair and reasonable in what you determine.”
The case, which began April 11 in Fairfax, Virginia, went to jury on Friday afternoon. While Depp’s side has painted the case as a treaty to reclaim his life and reputation, Heard’s side has argued that this is a First Amendment case about the right to tell one’s own story.
Hearing attorney Benjamin Rottenborn led the defendant’s final arguments by warning jurors about the message they would send to victims of domestic abuse if they were in favor of Depp.
“If you didn’t take pictures, it didn’t happen. If you took pictures, they’re fake. If you didn’t tell your friends, you’re lying. If you told your friends, they’re. Part of the deception. If not “You sought medical treatment, you were not injured. If you sought medical treatment, you are insane,” Rottenborn said.
“If you do everything you can to help your spouse, the person you love, get rid of the drug and alcohol abuse that makes him or her an abusive and angry monster, you’re a mess. “Decide is enough, you’ve had enough of fear, enough of pain and you have to leave to save yourself, you’re a gold digger.”
The story goes on
Rottenborn described the case as “blaming the victims at their most disgusting.” He also played the famous video of Depp walking through a kitchen, closing the cupboard doors, pouring himself a large glass of wine, and getting angry when he realized that Heard was recording his actions.
“Who does this? Who does this?” Rottenborn asked the jurors. “Imagine seeing your husband, the person you love, behaving violently in this way. Like a wild animal. This is abuse. This is abuse.”
These statements came after Depp’s lawyers argued that he was the real victim of the relationship.
“There’s a bully in this room, but it’s not Mr. Depp,” said attorney Camille Vasquez. “And there’s a domestic abuse victim in this room, but it’s not Ms. Heard.”
Later, Vásquez painted more clearly the team’s accusations against Heard. “Mrs. Heard lied,” he said. “And he lied again. And he kept lying.”
Vasquez said he allegedly lied when he applied for the temporary removal order in 2016, when he said he gave his entire $ 7 million divorce agreement to a charity, and when he wrote the 2018 Washington Post. on which the case of Depp revolves. (The case is being discussed in Virginia because the state is hosting news channel servers.)
“He’s gone too far. He can’t go back. He’s lied too many times to too many people,” Vásquez said. “So when Mr. Depp finally decided to fight, to clear his name by filing this lawsuit, Ms. Heard responded by inventing more and more stories of increasingly extreme abuse. He filed a new indictment that Mr. “Depp had done it. He raped her with a bottle in Australia and continues to make new claims even now.”
After listing the 16 witnesses who had appeared in court for Depp, either in person or via a live video, including ex-girlfriend Kate Moss, Depp’s team later said that except for his sister d ‘Heard, Whitney Henriquez,’ no one appeared for Mrs Heard in this room ‘apart from the witnesses who were paid to testify. Heard’s team presented their case largely through pre-recorded video deposition.
Depp’s lawyer, Ben Chew, during his turn before the jury, categorized the case as “the unique and singular case of #MeToo where there is not a single ‘me too'”, as in no other woman who is filed to charge Depp in the same manner. abuse.
Chew also noted that after the success of the #MeToo movement in 2017, producers knew better than to hire anyone accused of abuse, implying that Heard’s 2018 comment had placed Depp in a category in which it did not belong, one that supposedly. it cost him tens of millions of dollars in performance work.
Rottenborn returned to his rebuttal to remind the jury how he had allegedly suffered from Heard’s career after former Depp attorney Adam Waldman made the comments. “She likes studies. Her classmates like her. She does the tests well. But she can’t get opportunities because of the negativity associated with Mr. Depp and Mr. Waldman,” she said.
Judge Penney Azcarate, who began reading the jury’s instructions on how to decide the case on Friday, had strongly hinted the day before that the jury should not argue beyond dinner time each day and instructed them to decide on what time they would return to deliberations. after the public holiday Monday.
In Virginia, a seven-person civil jury must reach a unanimous verdict. The jury in this case will decide the defamation claims of the two actors simultaneously. It is unclear when the verdict will be decided, although it is expected that it could happen next week.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.