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John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard (CL-2019-2911) is a defamation trial in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States that began in April 2022.

Background

Depp and Heard's relationship

Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard began a relationship in around 2012 and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce from Depp on 23 May 2016, and obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) against him, stating in her court declaration that he had been "verbally and physically abusive" throughout their relationship, usually while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. In response, Depp alleged that she was "attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse." Heard testified about the abuse under oath at a divorce court deposition. The divorce received a large amount of publicity, with alleged evidence, such as images of Heard's injuries, published by the media. A settlement was reached in August 2016, and the divorce was finalised in January 2017. Depp and Heard issued a joint statement saying that their "relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm." Depp paid Heard a settlement of US$7 million, which she pledged to donate to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The settlement also included a non-disclosure agreement preventing either party from discussing their relationship publicly.

Depp v News Group Newspapers Ltd

In June 2018, Depp sued News Group Newspapers, the company publishing the UK tabloid The Sun, and its editor Dan Wootton for libel. The suit had to do with an article published by the tabloid in April 2018, where they had called him a wife beater and questioned author J. K. Rowling's approval of Depp being cast in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, based on her books. He claimed that the aim of The Sun had been to convince their readers that he was a domestic abuser and to plea Rowling to drop him from the Fantastic Beasts film. Depp alleged that Heard had instead been the aggressor in the relationship and had lied about being abused as part of a hoax. In their defence, NGN and Wootton argued that the articles reported the truth and that Depp had been abusive to Heard throughout their relationship, particularly when he was intoxicated. They presented 14 separate incidents on which they alleged that Depp had been violent towards Heard. Both Depp and Heard testified in person in the trial at the High Court in London in July 2020.

On 2 November 2020, Mr Justice Nicol found that the assaults were proven to the civil standard in 12 of the 14 incidents reported by NGN, and this with the overarching considerations was sufficient to show that The Sun's article was substantially accurate on the balance of probabilities. The verdict found that while Depp had been successful in proving that the articles had been damaging to his reputation, his claim of libel had failed as the articles had been "substantially true". The court found no evidence to support Depp's claim of a hoax, stating that "if Ms Heard had been constructing a hoax there are various measures which she might have taken, but which she did not". The court accepted Heard's claim that her career and activism had been seriously damaged by going public about the abuse. The 129-page verdict examined all 14 alleged incidents, both alone and in context of the entirety of the evidence presented. Four days after the verdict, Depp stepped down from his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts film series at the request of Warner Bros., its production company. Depp appealed the verdict but the Court of Appeal rejected his application in March 2021.

Depp's defamation suit against Heard

In February 2019, Depp sued Heard over an op-ed she wrote about her experience of being a public victim of domestic violence, which was published by The Washington Post in December 2018. Depp also again alleged that Heard had been the abuser, and that her allegations constituted a hoax against him. In August 2020, Heard countersued Depp, alleging that he had coordinated "a harassment campaign via Twitter and orchestrating online petitions in an effort to get her fired from Aquaman and L'Oréal".

Pre-trial developments

In October 2020, the judge in the case dismissed Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman after he leaked confidential information covered by a protective order to the media. Following the verdict in Depp's lawsuit against The Sun the following month, Heard's lawyers filed to have the defamation suit dismissed, but judge Penny Azcarate ruled against it because Heard had been a witness, not a defendant in the UK case. In August 2021, a New York judge ruled that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) must disclose documents related to Heard's charity pledge to the organization.

Trial

The trial began with jury selection in Fairfax County, Virginia on April 11, 2022. Actors Paul Bettany, James Franco and Ellen Barkin, and Tesla CEO and Heard's former boyfriend Elon Musk are expected to testify.

Opening statements

In their opening statement, Depp's lawyers Ben Chew and Camille Vasquez alleged that Heard had first begun to falsely accuse him of domestic abuse because he had asked for divorce. They argued that while Heard's 2018 op-ed did not mention Depp, it was clear by implication to whom she was referring to, and that by continuing her 'hoax', Heard has ruined Depp's reputation and career. They further argued that Heard, not Depp, had been the abusive party in the relationship, using violence such as throwing things "to prevent him from leaving".

In contrast, Heard's lawyers, Elaine Bredehoft and J. Benjamin Rottenborn, claimed that Depp had physically and sexually abused Heard on multiple occasions during their relationship, usually triggered by his addiction to alcohol and drugs. They accused Depp of seeking to "humiliate Amber, to haunt her, to wreck her career” with the lawsuit and to turn the case into a soap opera. They further argued that Heard's right to express her views in the op-ed was protected by the First Amendment, as she was discussing a matter of public interest (domestic violence) in broad terms. They argued that it had not changed Depp's reputation as the abuse allegations had become public knowledge two years prior to the op-ed, and that he had instead ruined his career in Hollywood with his drinking and drug-taking, which made him unreliable and caused film studios to not want to hire him.

Testimony presented by the plaintiff

Week 1

The first witness to testify for Depp was his sister and personal manager, Christi Dembrowski. She testified that Depp had sworn never to perpetuate domestic violence after being abused as a child by their mother. She denied that she was concerned about Depp's use of alcohol and drugs, but under cross-examination admitted that she had been concerned about his use of a prescribed pain medication. She also "struggled" to explain why she had sent text messages that urged Depp to stop taking drugs and alcohol and stated that he needed help.

Depp's longtime friend, artist Isaac Baruch stated that Depp functioned as his patron, giving him money and allowing him to live rent-free at one of Depp's five penthouses at the Eastern Columbia Building (ECB), where Depp and Heard lived during their marriage. Baruch testified that Heard told him in May 2016 that Depp had thrown a phone at her and hit her, prompting him to "inspect her face" and see no injuries. Under cross-examination, Baruch admitted that he did not know if Heard had used make-up to cover up her injuries. He also claimed to have seen a CCTV tape where Heard's sister appeared to feign punching her, and at one point in his testimony "became emotional" and accused Heard of having "wrecked" Depp's life with "fraudulent" claims.

Following a video-taped deposition from ECB general manager Brandon Patterson, who confirmed the accuracy of approximately 80 CCTV videotapes from the building, Depp's lawyers called Gina Deuters, his friend and the wife of his employee Stephen Deuters, to testify. However, the judge ended Deuters' testimony early and struck her testimony from record when Deuters admitted to having watched video clips of the trial. Next, the jury was shown a pre-recorded deposition by Heard's former personal assistant, Kate James. James accused Heard of treating her and her own sister very badly, being at times 'manic' and often intoxicated. In contrast, she described Depp as "a total Southern gentleman". The deposition did not mention the claim she had made in the UK trial in 2020, when she claimed that Heard had appropriated a rape story from her.

The jury was then presented with a pre-recorded deposition of Depp and Heard's former couples therapist, Laurel Anderson, who treated them in 2015. She testified her opinion that there was "mutual abuse" during the marriage. From talking to the couple, Anderson concluded that in certain situations Depp initiated a physical altercation, and in other situations Heard initiated a physical altercation. Anderson further testified that both Depp and Heard had been beaten by a parent as children, characterizing Depp as "well controlled" over decades and not violent against previous partners, but that he was "triggered" when with Heard. She stated that Heard had told her that Depp hit her and had seen bruises on Heard's face in both images and in person. Anderson stated that for Heard, it "was a point of pride... if she felt disrespected, to initiate a fight ... If was going to leave her to de-escalate from the fight, she would strike him to keep him there". In Anderson's view, Depp attempted to "de-escalate" conflicts more often than Heard.

The final testimony on the first week of trial was heard from Dr. David Kipper, an addiction specialist who had treated Depp for his drug and alcohol dependency. In a pre-recorded deposition, Kipper stated that Depp had on several occasions tried to end treatment as he "was concerned he'd never feel normal without his drugs". Kipper denied witnessing violence between Depp and Heard, but testified that a nurse who was working for Kipper had witnessed Depp with "bloody knuckles after hitting a wall in frustration or anger", that he "kicked in a trailer door on a movie set" when unhappy with a director, and had texted to Kipper that he had himself accidentally cut off his finger in Australia.

References

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• 2022 in American law
• Johnny Depp
• Violence against women in the United States