US

Depp-Heard jurors urged to think of abuse victims as defamation trial concludes

Lawyers give closing arguments for actors following seven-week case

Lawyers for the actor said a `mountain' of evidence that Mr Depp assaulted his former partner was `simply not there'. Photograph: Photo by Steve Helber / POOL / AFP

Edward Helmore
Fri May 27 2022 - 20:05

The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial headed toward its conclusion on Friday as the dueling parties offered closing arguments after a seven-week trial that has gripped public attention and become something of a litmus test for the state of gender relations.

The case next heads for deliberation by seven of 11 impaneled jurors selected for the trial in April.

The legal team for Ms Heard, the defendant in the case, told jurors to “think about the message that Mr Depp and his attorneys are sending to Amber and victims of domestic abuse”.

“If you didn’t take pictures, it didn’t happen,” said Benjamin Rottenborn. “If you didn’t seek medical attention, you weren’t injured.” Mr Depp, he said, “cannot and will not take responsibility … it’s all somebody else’s fault.”

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He told jurors that “if Amber was abused by Mr Depp even one time, then she wins … and we’re not just talking about physical abuse, psychological … sexual abuse”.

He directed them to consider text messages, previously shown to the court, showing “the most vile, disgusting language that you could ever imagine”.

“These words are a window into the heart and mind of America’s favourite pirate,” he said. “This is the real Johnny Depp.”

Earlier, Mr Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez told jurors Ms Heard had “ruined his life by falsely telling the world she was a survivor of domestic abuse at the hands of Mr Depp.”

For her summation, Ms Vasquez played audio recordings in which Ms Heard admits to hitting Mr Depp and calling him “a baby”.

“Take a minute to really think about what you heard there,” Ms Vasquez asked the jury. “This is the real Ms Heard, the one on the audio recordings, not the one in this courtroom.”

Ms Vasquez later said Ms Heard was either “a victim of truly horrific abuse or she is a woman who is willing to say absolutely anything”. There was no recording of Mr Depp admitting to hitting Ms Heard, she said. “It doesn’t exist. It didn’t happen.”

Ms Vasquez said Ms Heard’s allegations of violence were “an act of profound cruelty” to “true survivors of domestic abuse”.

Summations in the case came after Judge Penney Azcarate gave lengthy instructions to the jurors, directing them – by “greater weight of evidence” – to find for defamation with “actual malice”.

Each side was given 61 hours over the seven-week trial to present their case, with dozens of witnesses and experts weighing in on Depp and Heard’s 15-month marriage. Each was allotted two hours to summarise.

For Ms Heard, who has had the benefit of an unrelated London libel court judgment finding that it was “substantially true” Mr Depp is a “wife-beater”, her side of the defamation case turns on whether statements that a Mr Depp press agent gave to the Daily Mail alleging her claims of domestic violence were “an abuse hoax” orchestrated to take advantage of the #MeToo movement were libelous and intentionally false.

In her counter-claim, Ms Heard has asked the court to award her $100 million in damages.

If Mr Depp prevails in his claim that he was defamed by Ms Heard in a December 2018 opinion piece she wrote in the Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse” – despite never mentioning him by name – the actor could be awarded his claim for $50 million. – Guardian

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