Depp-Heard trial: No verdict as Jurors ends day’s deliberations
Jurors considering opposing lawsuits brought by ex-spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard continued deliberations Tuesday after sending a question to the judge overseeing the trial about the actors’ multimillion-dollar defamation claims.
Depp, the 58-year-old man ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star, sued Heard in Virginia for $50 million and argued that she defamed him when she called herself “a public figure representing domestic abuse” in a newspaper op-ed.
Heard, 36, countersued for $100 million, saying Depp defamed her when his lawyer called her allegations a “hoax”.
Depp has denied hitting Heard or any woman and said she was the one who became violent in their relationship.
Depp and Heard met in 2011 while filming ‘The Rum Diary’ and they married in February 2015. Their divorce was finalized about two years later.
At the center of the legal case is a December 2018 op-ed by Heard in the Washington Post in which she made the statement about domestic abuse. The article did not mention Depp by name, but his lawyer told the jury that it was clear Heard was referring to him.
After about four hours of deliberations Tuesday, the seven-person jury asked Judge Penney Azcarate to answer whether they should consider the entire article or just the headline. The headline said that Heard ‘spoke out against sexual violence and faced the wrath of our culture.’
Azcarate said he would tell the jury that the headline was the statement they should consider in reaching their verdict.
During six weeks of testimony, Heard’s attorneys argued that she had told the truth and that her comments were covered as free speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Throughout the case, jurors listened to recordings of the couple’s fights and saw graphic photographs of Depp’s bloody finger. She said the top of her finger was severed when Heard threw a bottle of vodka at her in 2015.
Heard denied hurting Depp’s finger and said that Depp sexually assaulted her that night with a bottle of liquor. She said that she hit him only to defend herself or her sister.
The testimony was broadcast widely live on social media, drawing large audiences to hear details about the couple’s troubled relationship.
Once among Hollywood’s biggest stars, Depp said Heard’s accusations cost him “everything”. a new ‘pirates’ the film was put on hold and Depp was replaced in the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ film franchise, a ‘Harry Potter’ cleave.
Depp lost a libel case less than two years ago against the Sun, a British tabloid that labeled him a “wife beater.” A London High Court judge ruled that he had repeatedly assaulted Heard.
Depp’s lawyers filed the US case in Fairfax County, Virginia, because the Washington Post is published there. The newspaper is not a defendant.
