Has Amber Heard told the truth or has she "played the part of her life", as Johnny Depp's lawyer says?
Did the actor assault and rape her wife, as she maintains, or was it the actress who abused her husband, as he says?
The two versions of the same story are completely opposite.
The testimonials are not conclusive;
neither do the tests, although some recordings leave Depp and Heard in a bad place.
The trial is over.
Seen for sentencing.
The jury has the word.
This Friday the floor was held by the lawyers of both parties.
In about four hours of session, the month and a half of marathon sessions in which the intimacy of a couple of Hollywood stars has been exposed to the whole world has been condensed.
At the entrance to the courthouse and on social networks, people have mostly taken sides with Depp, much more famous and popular, rather than Heard, a victim of humiliation and ridicule.
Lawyer Camille Vasquez speaks with her client, Johnny Depp, in the final session of the trial.Steve Helber (AP)
The seven members of the popular jury have met for the first time this Friday, but have not yet reached a unanimous verdict.
They will see each other again on Tuesday, after the holiday this Monday.
This is not a criminal case: there is no report of a crime of rape, sexual assault or physical abuse of any kind.
What the jury must decide is whether an article published by Amber Heard in
The Washington Post
in 2018 defamed and harmed Johnny Depp.
In it, Heard portrayed herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse.
Depp maintains that he lost contracts because of that accusation (although he was not expressly cited) and that it was the cause of the cancellation of the sixth installment of
Pirates of the Caribbean,
his most successful saga.
He claims compensation of 50 million dollars (about 47 million euros at current exchange rates).
Heard, on the other hand, considers herself the injured party.
She believes that the fact that Depp's lawyer said that the accusations were a fabrication has harmed her and has caused her not to be hired either.
She claims 100 million dollars.
It's not about crimes.
It's about money.
But not only money.
It is definitely something personal.
During closing arguments, attorney #CamilleVasquez urged the jury to give #JohnnyDepp his life back by telling the world that he is not the abuser #AmberHeard said he is.
@LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/6pfgM89AAT
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) May 27, 2022
The presentation of conclusions by the lawyers produced a striking contrast.
Camille Vasquez, Depp's lawyer, gave an emotionally charged statement, interspersed with some incriminating recordings and photos for Amber Heard.
Her messages were forceful and complete, an exposition of each episode dealt with in the trial, accusations of lying to the actress and a description of the damage caused to the actor.
Faced with this, Heard's lawyer brandished the instruction booklet to settle the case that the judge had given to the jurors and came to say that after all, Amber Heard's article was not necessarily about Johnny Depp, that when talking about abuse, it does not have to be physical aggression or rape, but rather that there was financial or psychological abuse, that the actress's article was not intended to defame her ex-husband and that in any case it is protected by the freedom of expression enshrined in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Emotion versus technicality.
Vasquez began by recalling that on May 27, 2016, Heard went to a Los Angeles court to request a restraining order against Depp.
He claimed that in doing so, he "ruined his life by falsely telling the world that he was a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of Mr. Depp."
And he appealed directly to the jury: "Today, exactly six years later, we ask you to give him his life back by telling the world that Mr. Depp was not the abuser but Mrs. Heard was and that they hold her accountable for her lie."
He said that that complaint was a setup, that he notified a paparazzi to take a photo of him leaving the court with a simulated injury.
He accused her of, two years later, at the height of the metoo movement, “playing the role of his life until this trial”, posing as a victim of domestic violence with the
Washington Post article.
“There is an abuser in this room, but it is not Mr. Depp;
there is a victim of abuse, but it is not Mrs. Heard”.
He said there was "physical, verbal and emotional abuse" from her, that he never believed he would have to deal with her victim.
At that moment he inserted a recording of her in which she is heard saying that she can go if she wants and report her, that no one will believe her.
03:20
Johnny Depp: Portrait of a questioned star
The lawyer went to great lengths to present Heard as a violent, abusive and cruel person, mentally and emotionally unbalanced, with fits of anger, a need for attention, a manipulator and a liar.
And she was theatrically inserting the incriminating audios of her for her, in which she acknowledges having beaten the actor in a violent tone.
“That is the real Mrs. Heard, not the one you have seen in this trial,” the attorney said.
“What you will not have heard in this case is any recording of Mr Depp admitting that he hit, kicked or assaulted Ms Heard.
Does not exist.
It didn't happen."
And she recalled that there is also no recording in which they are heard talking about any type of sexual abuse and there are no signs of it.
Vasquez also attacked Heard for having said that he had given the seven million he received for the divorce from Depp to charity, when in fact he has not, but has a commitment to do so.
The interrogation where that could be revealed was one of the most dialectically tense moments of the trial.
“She gets caught in a lie and tries to cover it up with more lies.
So let's talk about the giant lie at the heart of this case.
Mrs. Heard claims that Mr. Depp is an abusive monster, and that she is a public figure representing domestic abuse.
According to Depp's lawyer, the actress has played "the role of her life as a heroic survivor of brutal abuse" and to try to convince the jury that Depp is a "rapist".
The attorney pointed out what she saw as contradictions and inconsistencies in Heard's account.
She stressed that there are no medical records, that she did not tell her friends or anyone anything, that she never filed a complaint, that there are no photographs or videos of proof... She projected photographs of the actress taken in public in which no scratches can be seen and which are immediately after episodes like the one where she said she was afraid he had broken her nose.
Depp's other lawyer, Ben Chew, got down to some more technical details, but kept the general tone.
After recalling that Kate Moss had denied a rumor of abuse that Heard alluded to in the trial, he wondered: “Has any other woman appeared?
This is
metoo
without
metoo
,” he said.
NOW: #AmberHeard's closing argument by Benjamin Rottenborn.
If you leave #JohnnyDepp he will start a global smear campaign...he'll do everything he can to destroy your life and your career.
pic.twitter.com/daV0FFd6iI
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) May 27, 2022
Benjamin Rottenborn, Heard's attorney, began his argument with a bang: "Think about the message that Mr. Depp and his lawyers are sending to Amber and, by extension, to all victims of domestic abuse everywhere.
If you didn't take photos, it didn't happen.
If you took photos, they are fake.
If you didn't tell your friends, you're lying.
If you told your friends, they are part of the house.
If you didn't seek medical treatment, you weren't hurt.
If you sought medical treatment, you are crazy, ”he proclaimed, caricaturing Depp's defense arguments.
And she continued down that path for another minute: “If you do everything you can to help your spouse, the person you love, leave behind the crushing drug and alcohol abuse that causes you to become an abusive raging monster, you are rare.
And if you finally decide that enough is enough, that you have had enough fear, enough pain, and you have to leave to save yourself, you are a gold digger.
That is the message that Mr. Depp asks you to send.
But it doesn't stop there.
Because in Mr. Depp's world, you don't let Mr. Depp.
And if you do, he will start a global humiliation campaign against you.
He will do everything he can to destroy your life and your career," he told jurors.
Later, however, he began to go over point by point the instructions they had received to solve the case.
It may be legally effective, but in doing so he did not seem to mind discrediting his own client in part.
In the instructions, for example, the jury is asked to answer the question of whether the statement that Amber "became a representative public figure of domestic abuse" is true or not.
Judge Penney Azcarate explains to the jury the instructions to give their verdict in the last session of the trial of Johnny Depp against Amber Heard.Steve Helber (AP)
The lawyer said that those words are true, but seemed to disassociate him from the fact that Heard had suffered the assaults and rapes that he testified during the trial.
What he defended is his freedom of expression to write those words.
To assess whether there has been defamation, the jury is also asked to say if that statement is about Johnny Depp, and the lawyer came to say that that phrase or the article was not necessarily about Depp.
Furthermore, he argued that even if the statement was a lie and was about Depp, Amber Heard could only be convicted if she had intended to defame.
The lawyer argued that no, that the raison d'être of the article was to propose legislative measures to protect those who denounce abuses.
Rottenborn also claimed that Heard had had her headline changed.
A classic.
Amber Heard and her lawyer Elaine Bredehoft in the last session of the trial.Steve Helber (AP)
Since this is a libel case, it makes sense that Heard's defense focused primarily on First Amendment freedom of speech.
And since it is a lawsuit with legal rules, it made sense to focus on the procedural part, which may be enough to win the lawsuit.
But after such a mediatic trial, of such dramatic sessions, it was a bit disconcerting that Heard's own lawyer came to say that the least important thing was if the actress had invented part of the attacks or if the rape was not real.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let me be very clear," Rottenborn said.
“If Amber was abused by Mr. Depp, even just once, then she wins.
Once, and we're not just talking about physical abuse.
We are talking about emotional abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse.
That's what we're talking about," said the lawyer.
In #AmberHeard's closing argument attorney Elaine Bredehoft told the jury they only sued for $100M to send a "message" because #JohnnyDepp sued for $50M.\
She said they don't expect the jury to award $100M.
"...be fair and reasonable."
pic.twitter.com/gIp6qFnTT8
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) May 27, 2022
A part of the intervention of another lawyer of Heard was also a little disconcerting.
Elaine Bredehoft admitted that her client's request for $100 million in compensation was nothing short of absurd, that they just wanted to send a message, given that Depp's demand was for $50 million.
"We're not asking for $100 million, we're asking you to assess the damage and be fair and reasonable."
In the final turns of reply, each side stayed true to its main arguments.
"Amber Heard has played the role of her life telling story after story of abuse," Depp's lawyers insisted, undermining the credibility of the actress.
“[What she has done is] take the stand and lie about being bottle raped.
And if she lied about that, what else did she lie about?” Vasquez said.
#AmberHeard's attorney Benjamin Rottenborn said that #JohnnyDepp had multiple chances to fight the abuse allegations made by Heard.
@LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/Q2qit0QmAK
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) May 27, 2022
On the other side, Rottenborn was still presenting the lawsuit as a case of free speech, not abuse.
"It's time to tell Mr Depp that this was his last chance.
Tell him to get on with his life.
Tell him to let Amber get on with hers.
Defend freedom of expression.
Defend the First Amendment.
This trial is much more than Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard.
This is about freedom of expression, defend it, protect it and reject Mr Depp's demands against you, "said the lawyer.
Followers of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in the vicinity of the Fairfax courthouse where the lawsuit against them has been prosecuted. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN (REUTERS)
When the session, and with it the trial, was ending, an emergency alert began to sound on some phones in the room.
The judge said she believed it was an "Amber alert," which is what missing children notices are called.
It was actually a storm warning, like the one he's been downloading on Amber and Johnny at the Fairfax courthouse for a month and a half.
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