The jury in the blatant defamation trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard will resume deliberations on Tuesday morning after a three-day break for Memorial Day weekend.
The seven-person panel — which spent just two hours deliberating on Friday — set to meet again at about 9 a.m. in the Fairfax, Virginia, courthouse to continue weighing the evidence they’ve heard over the past six weeks. Is.
Depp, 58, is suing his ex-wife for $50 million for defamation over a 2018 Washington Post essay in which she talks about facing “the wrath of our culture” as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” was written in
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star says that even though the piece didn’t feature his name, it tarnished his reputation and cost him eight figures in potential earnings.
Heard, 36, fired back with a $100 million countersuit, claiming that Depp’s attorney, Adam Waldman, destroyed her career and made her life hell by telling the press in 2020 that she committed domestic abuse. The allegations were fabricated.
The jurors must decide who has defamed whom, and may rule in favor of either, neither, nor for both.
Depp flew to England shortly after finishing the debate on Friday, and took his 77-year-old friend on stage at Sheffield City Hall on Sunday to perform on covers of John Lennon’s “Isolation”, Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and Jimmy Rocker joined with Jeff Beck. Hendrix’s “Little Wing.”
Two days earlier in court, Depp’s attorney told the jury that the actor was the actual victim of domestic abuse in his former relationship with Heard.
“There’s an abuser in this courtroom, but it’s not Mr. Depp,” Camille Vasquez said in her closing statement. “Miss Heard is really the abuser and Mr. Depp is the abuser.”
Vasquez alleged that Heard made the allegations of abuse because he is a “deeply disturbed person” who is desperate for attention.
She asked the jurors to “give Mr. Depp back his life by telling the world that Mr. Depp is not an abuser. Miss Heard said that she holds Miss Heard accountable for her lies.”
After Depp’s team ended, Heard’s attorney Ben Rottenborn told the jury that “If Amber is abused by Mr. Depp even once, she wins.
“And we’re not just talking about physical abuse,” he said. It also included “emotional abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse”.
He argued that Depp’s true self was revealed in court through obscene texts sent about his wife, in which he fantasized about her “rotting corpse”.
“Ladies and gentlemen, these words are a window into the heart and mind of America’s favorite pirate,” said the lawyer.
It is not clear how long the jury will deliberate and what and how much will be awarded to the parties concerned.
His decision would be close to the doomed relationship between Depp and Heard, which the public has been following for more than a decade.
The two met in 2009 at the Hunter S. Thompson’s “The Rum Diary”, in which Depp plays a journalist who works in Puerto Rico and falls in love with Heard’s character.
They were both seeing people at the time but reunited in 2012 when single and started dating.
Depp proposed to Heard in 2014, and they married in early 2015 in a ceremony on Depp’s private island in The Bahamas.
Heard filed for divorce and asked the court to order a temporary injunction against Depp in May 2016.
“Our relationship was extremely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love,” the pair said in a joint statement issued after the divorce. “Neither the party has lied nor made false allegations for financial gain. There was never any intention of physical or emotional harm.”
But their relationship did not end there. Heard alleges that Depp sexually, physically and emotionally abused her.
Depp previously sued British publication The Sun for calling her a “wife-beater” in an article.
He lost his court battle in the UK – where it is considered easier to win a defamation case than in the US – and his current fight in Virginia is widely seen as his last chance to rebuild his legacy and recover from abuse charges. as was seen.
Depp, who has always denied the allegations, told the court that he sued Heard to “clear my name.”
Meanwhile, Heard says the suit has upset her and she wants to leave it all in the past.
“It’s horrible. It’s painful. And it’s humiliating for any human being,” she said in her final plea to the jury last week.
“In the harassment and humiliation, the campaign against me that resonates every single day on social media. And now in front of the cameras in this room. Every single day I have to relive this trauma,” she cried.
