Depp, 58, is suing Heard, 36, for $50 million over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post in 2018 in which she referred to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. (Depp has denied all allegations of abuse.) Heard countersued Depp for $100 million after the actor’s lawyer Adam Waldman called her accusations a hoax.
The jury, composed of seven people, heard closing arguments Friday, and must come to a unanimous decision for a verdict. They will be deciding Depp’s claim and Heard’s counterclaim at the same time.
While hundreds of Johnny Depp fans lined up to watch the actor depart the courthouse shortly after the jury went into deliberations, a lone Amber Heard supporter yelled into a megaphone: “Amber is amazing!” “You’re going to yell at one woman?” “Why don’t you use your brains?”
A woman next to her, apparently upset by the volume of the megaphone, tried to shove the megaphone and also knock away a Heard-themed poster. The Heard supporter pushed back and the crowd briefly started to shout, but a sheriff’s deputy came to break things up before it could go any further.
In his six minutes of rebuttal time, Benjamin Rottenborn emphasized that verbal and mental abuse is, in fact, domestic abuse. He said that Depp’s legal team’s argument that domestic abuse only includes physical abuse was false and contrary to expert testimony.
“If you believe that Mr. Depp was abusive to Amber one time ever in any form of abuse — verbal,...
Welcome to Reality Check, NewsGuard’s nonpartisan newsletter that tracks the false claims and conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them. Please support us by becoming a premi...