Day 13 Recap & Key Moments of Johnny Depp v Amber Heard Trial (Sidebar Podcast EP. 8)
hey everybody and welcome to sidebar. presented by law and crime where we. recap the biggest moments in the day's. biggest trials i'm jesse weber so we're. talking the ongoing trial of johnny depp. versus amber heard out in fairfax county. virginia and we just wrapped up day 13. little refresher here depp is suing his. ex-wife for 50 million dollars claiming. defamation namely that she falsely. accused him of domestic violence in a. 2018 washington post op-ed piece and. that that article ruined his life and.
his career and she's actually. counter-suing him for 100 million. dollars saying he defamed her when he. orchestrated a public smear campaign. against her saying she made up her. injuries and lied about him being an. abuser now today was the day that johnny. depp officially rested his side of the. case it began in the morning with the. continued tape deposition testimony of. aaron fellotti amber heard's former. nurse and this time it was depp's turn. for his attorney to question felotti.
they had felotti admit that heard had. reported she suffered from anxiety. bipolar disorder insomnia and eating. disorder that she was codependent that. she was jealous all to show that heard. was the unstable one in the relationship. and in terms of those alleged injuries. to herd's face that valadi said she saw. depp's team questioned how thoroughly. fellati really inspected those injuries. and whether a procedure that heard had. to remove a cyst on her eyelid that that.
may have caused the bruising but after. fellati our first in-person witness was. forensic accountant mike spindler and he. testified about the lost earnings that. johnny depp suffered after the. publication of the op-ed piece in 2018. what conclusions did you draw from your. review. i concluded that. mr depp. suffered lost earnings. of approximately 40 million dollars.
how did you reach that conclusion. well there are really two main. components to that. the first relates to the loss of the. role of captain jack sparrow in the. pirate six film. so the loss related to the loss of that. role in that franchise picture. it was 22.5 million dollars based on. testimony provided by mr jack wiggum. in addition we looked at yes. did you do anything else with respect to. pirate sex.
uh well we also calculated the net. earnings that mr deb would have received. from that. okay um. and what did you base your. analysis of pirate six on. uh based on the testimony of mr jack. wiggum now you might be saying wow. johnny depp lost out on 40 million. dollars because of amber heard's op-ed. piece. well. not so fast so you are not offering any. opinion or any testimony on whether.
those specific damages that you just. discussed were caused by the op-ed. correct that's correct and you're. assuming for the purposes of your report. that the damages that you're testifying. about were caused by amber's op-ed. correct. yes. so you're not looking at whether the. article published in the uk in june 2018. calling mr depp a wife beater caused him. the damages correct. correct you're not looking at whether.
the lawsuit that he brought in the uk. against the publisher of that article. caused him those damages right. correct you're not looking at any of the. evidence that came out in that lawsuit. about alleged instances of abuse against. amber correct. correct. you're not looking at whether the. consequences of mr depp's drug and. alcohol use have caused him the damages. you're discussing correct. correct you're not looking at whether.
the worsening performance at the box. office of mr duff's movies over time has. caused him the damages that you're. testifying about correct. correct and i'm not acknowledging any of. this being accurate i'm just saying that. that wasn't part of my calculations so. while it's possible that depp lost out. on pirate six and other opportunities. because of the op-ed. even spindler couldn't definitively say. that the op-ed caused this and he. couldn't outline one single lost. business opportunity he based his.
analysis off of what depp was earning in. 2017 a very lucrative year so you could. say. maybe this was all a bit speculative. after spindler though johnny depp. officially rested his case after three. weeks of testimony but the drama didn't. stop there because outside the presence. of the jury heard's team argued for a. motion to strike and that's basically. asking the court to throw out all the. evidence presented by depp that they. haven't stated a legally sufficient case.
it's basically like asking the court to. dismiss it when we talk about defamation. and when we talk about the washington. post article there are really three. statements at issue that depp is suing. over there are two in the body of the. piece one that says then two years ago i. became a public figure representing. domestic abuse and i felt the full force. of our culture's wrath for women who. speak out the second statement is i had. the rare vantage point of seeing in real. time how institutions protect men. accused of abuse.
but then there's the third statement and. that third statement is the headline of. the article and it says. i spoke up against sexual violence and. faced our culture's wrath. now the problem with the headline is. that herd's team argued that the actress. didn't even write that that it was the. washington post who wrote that but. depp's team says well her name's on the. article she endorsed it she even. republished it on twitter even though. that hasn't come into evidence yet so. given all that here's what the judge.
decided so as to the second and third. alleged defamatory statements. at the motion strike at this juncture i. view the evidence in light most. favorable to the plaintiff and. reasonable inferences from the evidence. to the plaintiff and if there is a. scintilla of evidence that a reasonable. juror could weigh then the matter. survives a motion to strike. in this matter there is evidence in the. case that a jury could weigh that the. statements were made by the defendant. that the statements were about the. plaintiff that the statement was. published that the statement is false. and the defendant made the statement. knowing it to be false or the defendant.
made it so recklessly as to amount to a. willful disregard for the truth. the weight of that evidence is up to the. fact finder so the motion to strike is. denied as the statement two and three. uh the motion to strike as a statement. one i'm going to take under advisement. because um. if it's not a stipulation i'm not sure. what it is but there seems to be an. agreement that the tweet of misheard is. part of the plaintiff's evidence which. is not in evidence at this point so i. can't rule on that statement whether or. not it is just a tweet or if it's some. sort of republication or something i. don't know because i haven't seen it yet.
so as to the motion strike on on. statement one i'm going to take an. advisement because ruling out now it. would be premature because i just don't. have that evidence in the case okay okay. the case is going to proceed it's going. to move forward but with the judge. saying that she's going to take it under. advisement it's possible that she could. end up striking the defamation claim as. to the headline possibly if it can be. shown later on that heard didn't write. it or endorse it and that's going to be. a big big loss to johnny depp either way.
though it was then time for heard to. start her case stay with us here at. sidebar as we'll continue right after. these words from our friends at the. court junkie podcast. imagine spending 16 years in prison for. a crime you didn't commit or imagine. being on the jury at a trial where you. have to decide whether a father murdered. a family or whether it was a cartel hit. this is jillian from court junkie a. podcast that examines criminal cases and. trials each week i give you the facts of.
a new case and let you decide if you. agree with the outcome make sure to. subscribe to court junkie on apple. spotify or any of your favorite podcast. apps. heard's first witness was clinical and. forensic psychologist dr dawn hughes. dr hughes examined amber heard and here. was her conclusion. at the end of that process considering. all the data. did you arrive at any expert opinions. yes i did all right i'm going i'd like. to start with your main expert opinions.
and then go through those can you please. tell the jury what your main opinions. were. um so like i said there are opinions. embedded within them but the main. opinion is that um ms heard's report of. intimate partner violence um and the. records that i reviewed is consistent. with what we know in the field about. intimate partner violence characterized. by physical violence psychological. aggression. sexual violence coercive control.
and surveillance behaviors. and what was the other uh main opinion. that you had. the second main opinion was that um. that miss her demonstrated very clear. psychological. and traumatic effects or the. exacerbation of trauma from those. statements that mr depp made through his. attorney there were three statements um. that we evaluated to see how they. affected her emotionally and. psychologically and it was my.
determination that they did. and did you arrive at any diagnostic. conclusions yes i did. and what were those. i diagnosed uh misheard with. post-traumatic stress disorder after. weeks of debt putting forward testimony. that amber heard was the abuser and he. was the victim this is heard completely. reshaping the narrative she would. explain away all of the behaviors of. amber heard she would explain that heard. hitting death or yelling at him or. refusing to cooperate with police during.
a domestic violence call or her. suffering from anxiety or stress or. depression even the fact that she stayed. with depp these are all signs not of her. abusing death but rather her being the. victim of death a victim of domestic or. intimate partner violence. and she would conclude that unlike dr. curry who testified earlier in the case. as a depth witness. her doesn't have a personality disorder. and that she did in fact suffer from. ptsd i should tell you that.
interestingly dr curry sat in the front. row as dr hughes testified. awkward. now dr hughes would outline some of this. abusive behavior in graphic detail on. that incident when kelly sue. was accused of hitting on misheard and. they went back into the trailer. mr depp performed a cavity search and. ostensibly was looking for drugs and. felt it acceptable to rip off her.
nightgown and stick his fingers up her. vagina to look for cocaine thought that. maybe she was hiding them there and. again these incidents often happened in. a drug-fueled rage. there was another incident in the. bahamas where when he got angry um he. took his fingers and he put him in her. vagina and moved her around violently in. the closet. again an act of sexual violence and as. dr hughes was describing all of this. amber heard could be seen getting quite.
emotional on camera and that is. something that we really haven't seen. too much from her since the start of the. case. that's all we have for you right now on. sidebar but make sure to subscribe on. apple podcast spotify wherever you get. your podcast thank you so much for. listening i'm jesse webber and i'll. speak to you next time. [Music].
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