By Associated Press
FALLS CHURCH: After a six-week trial during which Johnny Depp and Amber Heard tore into one another over the nasty particulars of their brief marriage, each side advised a jury the very same factor Friday — they need their lives again.
Heard “ruined his life by falsely telling the world she was a survivor of domestic abuse at the hands of Mr. Depp,” Depp lawyer Camille Vasquez advised the jury in closing arguments in his libel trial towards his ex-wife.
Heard’s legal professionals, in the meantime, mentioned Depp ruined Heard’s life by launching a smear marketing campaign towards her when she divorced him and publicly accused him of assault in 2016.
“In Mr. Depp’s world, you don’t leave Mr. Depp,” mentioned Heard’s lawyer, J. Benjamin Rottenborn. “If you do, he will start a campaign of global humiliation against you.”
Depp is hoping the trial will assist restore his repute, although it has become a spectacle of a vicious marriage, with broadcast cameras within the courtroom capturing each twist to an more and more rapt viewers as followers weighed in on social media and lined up in a single day for coveted courtroom seats.
Johnny Depp’s legal professional Camille Vasquez provides closing arguments on the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax. (Photo| AP)
“This case for Mr. Depp has never been about money,” mentioned Depp lawyer Benjamin Chew. “It is about Mr. Depp’s reputation and freeing him from the prison in which he has lived for the last six years.”
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His legal professionals say he was defamed by the article regardless that it by no means talked about his title.
Heard filed a $100 million counterclaim towards the previous “Pirates of the Caribbean” star after his lawyer known as her allegations a hoax. Though the counterclaim has acquired much less consideration on the trial, Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft mentioned it offers an avenue for the jury to compensate Heard for the abuse Depp inflicted on her even after they break up by orchestrating a smear marketing campaign.
“We’re asking you to finally hold this man responsible,” she advised the jury. “He has never accepted responsibility for anything in his life.” The seven-person civil jury started its deliberations at 3 p.m. Friday and completed for the day about two hours later. They will resume Tuesday.
Depp says he by no means struck Heard and that she concocted the abuse allegations. He has mentioned he was the one bodily attacked by Heard a number of occasions. “There is an abuser in this courtroom, but it is not Mr. Depp,” Vasquez mentioned.
During the trial, Heard testified about greater than a dozen episodes of bodily and sexual assault that she mentioned Depp inflicted on her.
Vasquez, in her closing, famous that Heard needed to revise her testimony concerning the first time she mentioned she was struck. Heard mentioned Depp hit her after she inadvertently laughed at considered one of his tattoos. Heard initially mentioned it occurred in 2013 — after a fairy-tale yr of courtship and romance — however later corrected herself to say it occurred in 2012, very early of their relationship.
“Now in this courtroom she has suddenly erased an entire year of magic,” Vasquez mentioned. Jurors have seen a number of images of Heard with marks and bruises on her face, however some images present solely gentle redness, and others present extra extreme bruising.
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Vasquez accused Heard of doctoring the images and mentioned proof that Heard has embellished a few of her accidents is proof that every one her claims of abuse are unfounded.
“You either believe all of it or none of it,” she mentioned. “Either she is a victim of ugly, horrible abuse, or she is a woman who is willing to say absolutely anything.”
In Heard’s closing, Rottenborn mentioned the nitpicking over Heard’s proof of abuse ignores the actual fact there’s overwhelming proof on her behalf and sends a harmful message to domestic-violence victims.
“If you didn’t take pictures, it didn’t happen,” Rottenborn mentioned. “If you did take pictures, they’re fake. If you didn’t tell your friends, they’re lying. If you did tell your friends, they’re part of the hoax.”
And he rejected Vasquez’s suggestion that if the jury thinks Heard is likely to be embellishing on a single act of abuse that they must disregard every little thing she says. He mentioned Depp’s libel declare should fail if Heard suffered even a single incident of abuse. “They’re trying to trick you into thinking Amber has to be perfect to win,” Rottenborn mentioned.
When the jury deliberates, it must focus not solely on whether or not there was abuse but in addition on whether or not Heard’s op-ed piece might be thought of legally defamatory. The article itself focuses totally on coverage questions of home violence, however Depp’s lawyer level to 2 passages within the article, in addition to a web based headline that they are saying defamed Depp.
In the primary passage, Heard writes that “two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath.” Depp’s legal professionals name it a transparent reference to Depp, on condition that Heard publicly accused Depp of home violence in 2016 — two years earlier than she wrote the article.
Actor Amber Heard’s legal professional Benjamin Rottenborn speaks throughout closing arguments on the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax. (Photo | AP)
In a second passage, she states, “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real-time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.” The on-line headline reads “Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath.”
“She didn’t mention his name. She didn’t have to,” Chew mentioned. “Everyone knew exactly who and what Ms. Heard was talking about.”
Heard’s legal professionals mentioned Heard cannot be held accountable for the headline as a result of she did not write it, and that the 2 passages within the article aren’t concerning the abuse allegations themselves however how Heard’s life modified after she made them.
Rottenborn advised jurors that even when they have an inclination to consider Depp’s declare that he by no means abused Heard, he nonetheless cannot win his case as a result of Heard has a First Amendment proper to weigh in on issues of public debate.
