FAIRFAX | Jurors in the trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard began their third day of deliberations on Wednesday to answer some 40 questions that will determine whether the two actors defamed each other and whether they can obtain damages.
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The jurors – five men and two women – were presented with a document on Friday by Judge Penney Azcarate containing 24 questions relating to Johnny Depp’s complaint and 18 for that of Amber Heard.
The star of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga is suing his ex-wife in court in Fairfax, near Washington, for a column published by the Washington Post in 2018 in which she says she is “a public figure representing domestic violence”.
Although he is not named, Johnny believes that this platform destroyed his career and his reputation, and claims 50 million dollars in damages.
Amber Heard, who appeared in particular in Justice League and Aquaman, counter-attacked and asked for the double.
The 36-year-old actress claims to have been defamed by a former lawyer for her ex-husband, who had called her accusations of domestic violence “hoaxes” in April 2020.
Three passages from Amber Heard’s platform and three statements from Adam Waldman, the actor’s lawyer, are concerned.
Jurors must unanimously determine whether each passage is defamatory.
But to award damages, they must also judge whether the author of the statements acted out of “real malice”, knowing them to be false, a legal subtlety concerning public figures.
Gigs in England
Once the proceedings were over on Friday, Johnny Depp flew to the United Kingdom, where he took part in several concerts by British singer Jeff Beck in Sheffield and London.
For six weeks, the jury heard dozens of hours of testimonies and audio or video recordings that revealed details of their life together far removed from the glamor of Hollywood, between 2011 and 2016.
The actress said that Johnny Depp became a “monster” under the influence of an explosive cocktail of drugs and alcohol and refused to undergo rehab.
He would have raped her with a bottle of alcohol a month after their marriage, in March 2015, in Australia where the actor was filming episode 5 of the Pirates.
That day, Johnny Depp had the end of a finger severed and was hospitalized. He claims it’s because of the glare from a bottle thrown by Amber Heard. She says he hurt himself.
After a final argument in May 2016, during which Johnny Depp allegedly threw a phone in her face, she filed for divorce on the grounds of domestic violence.
Since then, she says she became the target of a social media smear campaign that wiped out her career.
The 58-year-old actor meanwhile denounced “staggering” accusations and assured that it was, on the contrary, his wife who was violent.
“No human being is perfect, certainly not, none of us, but never in my life have I committed sexual violence or physical violence,” he said on the stand.
The actor was able to count on the support of hundreds of admirers who gathered in the courtroom and at the entrances to the court to cheer him on.
This trial, before a civil chamber, is the second for Johnny Depp, who had already had his defamation complaint dismissed in London in 2020 against the tabloid The Sun, which had called him a “violent husband”.
The two actors each claim to have lost between 40 and 50 million dollars in fees since the publication of the tribune.
