It was obvious that Op-ed was about him, but she was denying it, saying if she wanted to truly defame him, she would have mentioned his name directly in the op-ed. Cross examination caught her in that lie, because she admitted she wrote it because of him. What she said:
“I know how many people will come out and say whatever for him. That’s his power. That’s why I wrote the op-ed. I was speaking to that phenomenon, (about) how many people will come out in support of him and will fall to his power. He is a very powerful man and people love currying favor with powerful men.”
If her argument was along the line of she didn’t name him directly, but the op-ed was written about her experience with him and here’s the evidence to prove it… who knows, the outcome may have been different. Because she and her team made the argument that it was not written about him and Depp came to that conclusion himself, her little slip on the stand did not help her case.
But how is that like relevant to whether she defamed him? Heck, she was lying to avoid defaming him, it sounds like.
Just because she lied about that doesn’t mean she’s guilty of defaming him. To take it to an extreme, if she lied about what she had for supper, it would be completely irrelevant to the central claim of the suit. Here, it’s not totally irrelevant, but it doesn’t weaken her case. If he beat her, then what she says was true, and not defamatory. End of story.
I didn’t watch the whole trial. I caught some live and few end of the day highlights.
Verdict seems reasonable to me. If there was evidence that Depp ever put hands on Heard, I missed it. Was there? 100% sure Heard physically attacked Depp.
As for verbal/emotional abuse, I think it’s hard to discern with the alcohol and drug use and general mudslinging. Most of that was pretty when put in context.
It also sounded to me like Heard was quite adept at reactive abuse (where you needle someone’s known weaknesses to the point they snap and then clutch your pearls at their “abuse”)
My take is that Heard set out to promote herself by exploiting her tumultuous relationship with Depp and assumed in the wake of #metoo that her credibility would be a slam dunk. She miscalculated.
I dont think $15 million dollars is reasonable. As i said, if i could get that much money from someone calling me abusive, have at it and give me that sweet cash.
Of course as others said, he is unlikely to collect on it, but assuming he is, that’s not a reasonable amount.
Not counting her own testimony, there’s testimony from her sister that he assaulted both of them and testimony from her makeup artist about how she used makeup to conceal bruises and a cut lip.
There were several cases of Depp being caught in lies too. Like he said he was sober during a certain stretch of time and there’s strong evidence he was not. And he claimed that Heard gave him a black eye during a train ride on their honeymoon, but photos prove he already had the black eye before boarding the train.
There’s tons of texts from Depp apologizing to Heard for his bad behavior and vowing to be better, which is only circumstantial. And some where he says pretty horrendous (IMO) stuff, including one from before they were married about f—-ing her burned corpse.
I only caught portions of the trial so I’m sure I missed a lot.
I know Heard lied too and is no saint by any means, but yes, I think it’s safe to say that she was abused, and the jury so found too.
Heard has little to lose by appealing, so I assume she will. She can pay her lawyers or she can pay Depp. From what I understand the judgment exceeds her net worth and she’s probably unhirable now so may as well try her luck at an appeal.
Based on stuff I read before the trial concluded they made it sound like it was near impossible for Depp to legally prove his case, because if he abused her even one time, then she did not defame him by saying she was a victim of domestic abuse. And now two different courts have found that he DID abuse her.
So that just makes an appeal all the more likely IMO.
March 8, 1989: assaulted a hotel security guard, pled guilty
January 31, 1999: threatened paparazzi with a wooden plank, admitted guilt in a British process called “cautioning”
Upcoming trial is over an assault that allegedly occurred on April 12, 2017. A location manager for City of Lies claims that Depp punched him twice. Trial to start next month.
That’s not counting the arrest for trashing a hotel room.
Oh, I forgot, also testimony from a friend that she went to their house and hair had been ripped from Heard’s head and there bruises around both of her eyes. Also when she returned from Australia that there were deep long cuts on the back of Heard’s arms, and that Heard often used makeup to cover bruises.
And testimony from a psychologist that she has PTSD stemming from intimate partner violence. The same psychologist testified that Heard does NOT have BPD or histrionic personality disorder.
when put in context.