Depp-Heard trial | Deliberations with multiple questions

(Fairfax) Actor Johnny Depp won a resounding legal victory against Amber Heard in a US court on Wednesday, even though jurors concluded that the ex-spouses had defamed each other in the press, after a a bitter trial that revealed the lackluster private lives of two Hollywood celebrities.

After some 13 hours of deliberation, the seven jurors of the court in Fairfax, near Washington, ruled that the title and two passages of a tribune, published in 2018 by Amber Heard in the Washington Post, contained defamatory remarks to towards the star of Pirates of the Caribbean and awarded him $15 million in damages.

Clearly, these five men and two women unanimously felt that Amber Heard had made false statements by describing herself as a victim of domestic violence, and that she had acted “with malicious intent”, even if she did not name not her ex-husband in this text.

The 36-year-old actress, present in court, welcomed the verdict with a serious face, seeming to accuse the blow.

Absent from the courtroom on Wednesday, Johnny Depp, 58, reacted to him in the form of a message posted on Instagram. “The jury brought me back to life,” he said. “The best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally opened,” he added.

He had assured that he had never raised his hand on a woman during the trial, which lasted six weeks and offered an uncompromising dive into the intimacy of the two Hollywood stars.

Believing that the published tribune had ruined his reputation and his career, Johnny Depp claimed 50 million dollars in compensation.

Amber Heard, who appeared in particular in Justice League and Aquamanhad counter-attacked and demanded the double, believing that three statements from an ex-lawyer for Johnny Depp on a daily basis DailyMail in 2020 were in turn defamatory.

The jury only answered in the affirmative for one of them, and awarded two million dollars in compensation to the actress.

” Disappointment ”

M^me Heard confided his “inexpressible disappointment”. “I am devastated that the mountain of evidence was not sufficient to address the far greater power, influence and ascendancy of my ex-husband,” she wrote in his statement.

“I am even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It challenges the idea that violence against women should be taken seriously,” she said.

Johnny Depp was on tour in the United Kingdom, where he participated in several concerts of British singer Jeff Beck.

In front of the court, a few dozen people exulted at the announcement of the verdict. Behind a security tape, some spectators carried signs in support of the American actor, a man was dressed as Jack Sparrow, the character he plays in Pirates of the Caribbean.

In his press release, Johnny Depp hailed “the surge of love” expressed by the hundreds of admirers who gathered every day in the courtroom and at the entrances to the court to support him.

The trial, broadcast live on television, resulted in an unpacking of the couple’s private life, in front of millions of viewers around the world.

Dozens of hours of testimonials and audio or video recordings have revealed details of their disputed relationship, far removed from Hollywood glamor, between 2011 and 2016.

Smear campaign

The actress said that Johnny Depp became a “monster” under the influence of an explosive cocktail of drugs and alcohol and refused to follow a rehab.

He would have raped her using a bottle of alcohol a month after their marriage, in March 2015, in Australia where the actor was filming episode 5 of Pirates.

That day, Johnny Depp had the end of a finger severed and was hospitalized. He claims it’s because of the glare from a bottle thrown by Amber Heard. She says he hurt himself.

After another argument in May 2016, during which Johnny Depp allegedly threw a phone in her face, she filed for divorce on the grounds of domestic violence.

Since then, she says she became the target of a social media smear campaign that wiped out her career.

The actor meanwhile denounced “staggering” accusations and assured that it was on the contrary his wife who was violent.

This trial, before a civil chamber, sounds like revenge for Johnny Depp, who had his libel suit dismissed in London in 2020 against the tabloid The Sunwho called him a “violent husband”.

The two actors each claim to have lost between 40 and 50 million dollars in fees since the publication of the tribune.