A jury on Wednesday found that actor Johnny Depp was defamed by ex-wife Amber Heard, and awarded him monetary damages. The verdict was initially supposed to be read at 3 p.m., but was later delayed for the jury to complete instructions from the judge.
“Verdict at 3 p.m.,” Court TV legal correspondent Chanley Shá Painter reported.
Verdict at 3pm #deppvsheard
— Chanley Shá Painter (@ChanleyCourtTV) June 1, 2022
Depp sued Heard, his ex-wife, for $50 million over an op-ed she penned about domestic violence published by The Washington Post in 2018. The “Aquaman” actress has countersued for $100 million.
During the intense trial, Heard detailed serious allegations of abuse at the hands of Depp, including a rape with a possibly broken Maker’s Mark bottle. Depp and his legal team denied all allegations, telling the jury that Heard is perpetrating a #MeToo hoax to take from Depp, and also to punish him for leaving her.
“I didn’t know if the bottle he had inside me was broken,” Heard said on the stand this month, recalling an alleged incident from 2015 in Australia. “I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel anything.”
“My nightgown came completely off, it was ripped off of me,” the actress told the jury, noting that Depp was allegedly repeatedly punching the wall.
“I was naked, slipping around on this tile,” she claimed. Depp was allegedly “screaming” that Heard “ruined his life” and that he “f***ing” hated her.
“I’m looking in his eyes, I don’t see him anymore,” a sobbing Heard said, breathing heavily. “It wasn’t him. It was black. I’ve never been so scared in my life. I was trying to get through to Johnny and I couldn’t see him at all.”
Depp attorney Camille Vasquez said during closing arguments last week that Heard’s accusations were part of a hoax against her client.
“She gave the performance of her life,” Vasquez said.
“She came into this courtroom prepared to give the performance of her life, and she gave it,” the attorney continued. “Ms. Heard’s acting coach, Kristina Sexton, testified that Ms. Heard has difficulty crying when she is acting. You saw it, Ms. Heard sobbing without tears while spinning elaborate, exaggerated, fantastical accounts of abuse.”
“It was a performance,” Vasquez told the jury. “She told you what she thinks you need to hear to convict this man as a domestic abuser and a rapist. She wants you to believe she was abused countless times. Countless times over the entire course of their relationship. But as Mr. [Ben] Chew and I promised you, the evidence just does not bear that out.”
In closing arguments for Heard’s team, attorney Ben Rottenborn argued that the jury has to find that Depp abused Heard just one time, in any capacity, to come to a verdict for his client.
Related: Heard Slammed Over ‘Different Versions Of Same Picture’ Used As Evidence For Two Different Incidents