{"id":3691,"date":"2022-06-01T19:39:23","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T19:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=3691"},"modified":"2022-06-01T19:46:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T19:46:45","slug":"verdict-johnny-depp-wins-defamation-case-against-amber-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=3691","title":{"rendered":"Verdict: Johnny Depp wins defamation case against Amber Heard"},"content":{"rendered":"

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June 1, 2022 at 03:36PM Verdict: Johnny Depp wins defamation case against Amber Heard<\/p>\n

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FAIRFAX, Va. \u2014\u00a0Johnny Depp won his bombshell defamation case Wednesday against Amber Heard after a Virginia jury substantiated the claim that his ex-wife sullied his reputation and damaged his career when she wrote about becoming a \u201cpublic figure representing domestic abuse\u201d following the couple\u2019s spilt.<\/p>\n

The panel of seven in Fairfax decided to award the \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d star a total $15 million in damages after deliberating for about 13 hours.<\/p>\n

Depp, 58, had sued Heard for $50 million over her 2018 Washington Post essay in which she wrote about facing \u201cour culture\u2019s wrath\u201d for speaking out against a powerful man \u2014 a warning that seemingly became more prescient with the jury\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Early in his testimony, Depp told the jury he brought the lawsuit against the \u201cAquaman\u201d actress for defamation to \u201cclear my name.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is the truth,\u201d he said on April 19. \u201cOne day you\u2019re Cinderella and then in zero point six seconds you\u2019re Quasimodo. I didn\u2019t deserve that and neither did my children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heard, 36, alleged Depp physically and sexually abused her, recounting harrowing moments in her testimony in which she claimed the widely-beloved star assaulted her, including once forcibly penetrating her with a liquor bottle.<\/p>\n

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Depp gestures to fans as he arrives outside the court on May 5.<\/figcaption>
Cliff Owen\/CNP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Camille Vasquez, the lawyer for Johnny Depp, arrives at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse on June 1.<\/figcaption>
EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Johnny Depp\u2019s attorney Ben Chew arrives at the courthouse on June 1.<\/figcaption>
REUTERS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Depp repeatedly denied the claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever did I myself reach the point of striking Ms. Heard in any way nor have I ever struck any woman in my life,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the six-week trial, the actor\u2019s lawyers went to lengths to prove that Depp \u2014 not Heard \u2014 was the victim of domestic abuse in their doomed relationship.<\/p>\n

Depp\u2019s team also called a slew of witnesses to discuss the reputational damage he suffered as a result of Heard\u2019s essay, including one who said the actor was \u201ccanceled\u201d and no longer desirable to family friendly companies like Disney.<\/p>\n

The jury listened to hours of testimony about one particular nasty fight in March 2015, when the couple was in Australia while Depp was filming the fifth \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d installment.<\/p>\n

The fight ended in Depp losing the tip of his right, middle finger, which he said happened when Heard lobbed a bottle of vodka at him.<\/p>\n

The \u201cAquaman\u201d actress said her then-husband had been on a multi-day drug and alcohol binge that ended in him cutting off his own finger. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Depp wrote messages to Heard around their rental house with the blood spewing from his finger.<\/p>\n

Depp did not deny the fact he had long suffered from issues with drugs and alcohol, but maintained he never got violent while abusing the substances.<\/p>\n

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Depp sued Heard for $50 million over her 2018 Washington Post essay.<\/figcaption>
Cliff Owen\/CNP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019d done pretty much all the drugs I was aware of by the time I was 15 years old,\u201d he testified. \u201cIt\u2019s never been for the party effect. It\u2019s been for trying to numb the things inside that can plague someone who has experienced trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his verbose testimony, the actor took the jury on a trip down memory lane, depicting himself as a simple boy from the holler who grew up with an abusive mother, easy access to drugs and dreams of becoming a musician.<\/p>\n

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Keep up with today’s most important news<\/h3>\n

Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Each day of the trial, hoards of his fans packed the courtroom gallery, and the seats became so in demand people lined up at 1 a.m. to get a chance to see him in the flesh.<\/p>\n

Devotees flew from around the world, telling The Post they were spending tens of thousands of dollars to support the man they believed to be innocent.<\/p>\n

Online, his admirers got hashtags trending like #JusticeforJohnnyDepp and #AmberHeardIsALiar. The trial became the event of the year, watched by millions daily. Depp\u2019s lawyer Camille Vasquez grew her own fan base, and expert witnesses for Heard say their businesses attacked online.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Depp is unclear, but it\u2019s widely believe the actor will take a victory lap and return to the big screen, vindicated and more-popular than ever.<\/p>\n

Still, the trial highlighted his dark side, particularly in text messages he sent about Heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully that c\u2014t\u2019s rotting corpse is decomposing in the f\u2014\u2014g trunk of a honda civic,\u201d he wrote in a 2016 message<\/p>\n

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Heard (left) and her sister Whitney Heard (right) depart court on May 23.<\/figcaption>
Cliff Owen\/CNP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In another, Depp fantasized about have sex with Heard\u2019s \u201cburnt corpse\u201d to make sure she was dead. And in one foreboding text, Depp wrote that the actress was \u201cbegging for\u00a0total global humiliation.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s gonna get it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no mercy, no fear and not an ounce of emotion, or what I once thought was love for this gold digging, low level, dime a dozen, mushy, pointless dangling overused flappy fish market,\u201d Depp wrote that same year.<\/p>\n

On the stand, Heard tried to show that Depp caused her the \u201cglobal humiliation\u201d he promised.<\/p>\n

Heard filed for a temporary restraining order against the actor in May 2016, after less than two years of marriage, as she petitioned a Los Angeles court for a divorce.<\/p>\n

Depp had sued The Sun in the UK in 2020 over an article that called him a \u201cwife beater,\u201d and, after losing that case, he was asked to pull out of his role for the film \u201cFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he filed the Virginia suit, Heard countersued him for $100 million dollars, claiming statements made on his behalf by lawyer Adam Waldman that she fabricated the abuse claims ruined her career and made her life hell.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to kill me,\u201d she said on May 26, in her return to the witness stand. \u201cPeople want to put my baby in the microwave and they tell me that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Heard lost in a defamation court battle lasting over a month with ex-husband Depp.<\/figcaption>
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking directly at the jury, Heard said, \u201cJohnny \u2026 promised me that if I ever left him, he\u2019d make me think of him every single day that I live.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the harassment and humiliation, the campaign against me that\u2019s echoed every single day on social media. And now in front of cameras in this room. Every single day I have to relive the trauma.<\/p>\n

Heard\u2019s team produced scores of photos of the actress\u2019 bruises and injuries from alleged fights with Depp, whose team claimed the wounds were faked, painted on and digitally manipulated.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo human being is perfect, certainly not, but I have never in my life committed sexual battery, physical abuse, all these outlandish, outrageous stories of me committing these things,\u201d Depp said in May 25 testimony.<\/p>\n

He called Heard\u2019s statements \u201chorrible, ridiculous, humiliating, ludicrous, painful, savage, unimaginably brutal, cruel, and all false.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial was chock-full with celebrity name drops, as witnesses listed off names like Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, James Franco, writer Hunter S. Thompson, Winona Ryder, Zendaya, Marilyn Manson, Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Bettany and Keith Richards.<\/p>\n

Notably, the jury Heard testimony from two of Depp\u2019s famous exes, Ellen Barkin and Kate Moss.<\/p>\n

Barkin testified via deposition at the request of Heard\u2019s team, saying that Depp was a \u201cjealous\u201d man who drank all the time and once hurled a wine bottle at her direction.<\/p>\n

Moss was allowed to testify in a last minute shake-up after Heard offhandedly referenced a rumor that Depp pushed the British model down the stairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never pushed me, kicked me, or threw me down any stairs,\u201d Moss said in live video deposition from England during the final week of the trial.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

via New York Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 1, 2022 at 03:36PM Verdict: Johnny Depp wins defamation case against Amber Heard FAIRFAX, Va. \u2014\u00a0Johnny Depp won his bombshell defamation case Wednesday against Amber Heard after a Virginia jury substantiated the claim that his ex-wife sullied his reputation and damaged his career when she wrote about becoming a \u201cpublic figure representing domestic abuse\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[233,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-featured-stories"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?fit=2102%2C1458&ssl=1",2102,1458,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?fit=300%2C208&ssl=1",300,208,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?fit=768%2C533&ssl=1",768,533,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?fit=1024%2C710&ssl=1",1024,710,true],"rpg_gallery_admin_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"rpg_gallery_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?fit=1536%2C1065&ssl=1",1536,1065,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?fit=2048%2C1421&ssl=1",2048,1421,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Peter Santilli"]},"category_info":"Culture<\/a> Featured Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured Stories","comment_count":"1","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-01-at-3.37.29-PM.png?fit=2102%2C1458&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/plD2r-Xx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3691"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3698,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691\/revisions\/3698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}