Top Moments of Johnny Depp & Amber Heard's Closing Arguments (Sidebar Podcast EP. 26)

before amber heard ladies and gentlemen. no woman ever. no woman ever before amber heard ever. claimed that mr depp raised a hand to. her in his 58 years. and no other woman since. miss heard made that false claim back on. may 17 may 27 2016. has and repeated it in her december 2018.

op-ed. has any woman come forward since. this is me too. without any me too. so we're fighting back and that's the. common plan. she finally has said enough. enough. and we're asking you to finally. hold this man responsible attorneys for. johnny depp and amber heard battling it. out delivering their final words to the. jury before deliberations in the trial.

that has absolutely captured the. nation's attention welcome to sidebar. presented by law and crime where we. recap the biggest moments in the day's. biggest cases i'm jesse weber we're. talking the ongoing trial of johnny depp. versus amber heard out in fairfax county. virginia which just wrapped up day 24. 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 heard is. counter-suing debt for 100 million. dollars well maybe 100 million dollars. i'll get to that saying that he through. his attorney adam waldman orchestrated a. public smear campaign in the media. calling her accusations a hoax. well we've come to the end folks closing. arguments this is the time that each. side has to wrap up their cases. summarize the main points and leave a. lasting impression in the minds of the.

jury now each side had two hours to. deliver their closings that in and of. itself was pretty interesting to watch. because before the lunch break depp side. had about 39 minutes for a rebuttal. closing and get this herdside only had. six minutes left. six minutes for a rebuttal. now before we get to the closings real. quick here is what each side needs to. prove okay so for depp he's claiming. that three statements in the 2018. washington post article were defamatory.

and here are the statements one the. headline i spoke up against sexual. violence and faced our culture's wrath. that has to change number two 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 and number three. i had the rare vantage point of seeing. in real time how institutions protect. men accused of abuse now depp would have. to show that by implication these. statements were about him that these.

statements were published that they were. false and that they were made with. actual malice very important legal term. here meaning that heard knew these. statements were untrue or she made them. with a reckless disregard for the truth. and then there are herds counter claims. so she's attempting to prove that depp's. attorney adam waldman was acting as an. agent for johnny depp when he made these. alleged defamatory statements to the.

daily mail publication number one amber. heard and her friends in the media used. fake sexual violence allegations as both. a sword and shield depending on their. needs they have selected to some of her. sexual violence hoax facts as a sword. inflicting them upon the public and mr. deb number two quite simply this was an. ambush a hoax they set mr depp up by. calling cops but the first attempt. didn't do the trick the officers came to. the penthouses thoroughly searched and. interviewed and left after seeing no.

damage to face or property so amber and. her friends spilled a little wine and. roughed the place up got their stories. straight on the direction of a lawyer. and publicist and then placed a second. call to 9-1-1 and the final one we have. reached the beginning of the end of miss. herd's abuse hoax against johnny depp. same elements of defamation like we. talked about before so now that we have. the groundwork let's dig into the. closings first up johnny depp side the. first part of their closings were. divided between camille vasquez and ben. shu they focused upon the fact that why.

would depp go through this whole trial. expose all of these details to the world. if he wasn't really telling the truth. and trying to set the record straight. during the closings they kept playing. the audio tapes of amber heard berating. johnny depp mocking him admitting to. hitting him this all casting him as the. victim in this story not the abuser and. they also did this by honing in on the. injuries that depp allegedly sustained. at the hands of hurt including of course. the infamous 2015 australia incident. where they claim amber heard threw a.

vodka bottle at johnny depp smashing and. slicing his finger open it was. interesting when vasquez said may 27. 2016 exactly six years to the day. is when they claim heard went to the. court to get a tro against depp based on. false abuse allegations the idea being. that that is when it started and with. this trial this is where it ends heard's. team also highlighted heard's alleged. lies they focused a lot on her pledging.

or promising to donate the full seven. million dollars of the divorce. settlement to charities but in the end. she didn't really do that again the. concept here is if she lies about that. what else does she lie about. yet there was one moment that really. stood out about camille vasquez's. closing. the mountain of evidence that mr deaf. abused miss hurt is simply not there. what we have is a mountain of unproven. allegations that are wild. over the top and implausible.

and you can't pick and choose which of. these wild allegations to believe and. which ones to disregard. you either believe all of it or none of. it. either mr depp sexually assaulted. misheard with a bottle in australia. or misheard god up on that stand in. front of all of you and made up that. horrific tale of abuse. either she's a victim of truly horrific. abuse. or she is a woman who is willing to say. absolutely anything.

it is disturbing to think that miss. heard would make up the horrific tales. of abuse that she testified to in this. courtroom. but this case doesn't come down to. whether you believe misheard or you. believe mr depp. this case comes down to whether you. believe miss heard. or you believe. mr depp. christy dombrowski. sean bett. malcolm connolly. travis mcgivern.

starling jenkins. keenan wyatt. dr kipper. nurses debbie lloyd and aaron falati. tara roberts. ben king. kate james. kate moss. dr colber. morgan knight. morgan tremaine. officers melissa signs. officers tyler hadden. officer william gatlin. and beverly. leonard what ms heard testify to in this.

courtroom is the story of far too many. women. but the overwhelming evidence. and weight of that evidence shows that. it's not her story. it's not miss herd's story quite. powerful there if you believe amber. heard then you have to say everyone else. who took the stand during johnny depp's. case was lying that they're all. committing perjury to seemingly protect. themselves for johnny depp i mean does. that make sense is that too much to.

believe for the jury depp's team also. moved on to the issue of damages and. when talking about damages you need to. show the harm what did you lose how did. the washington post article ruin your. career and reputation you need to create. that causal effect that connection so. let's hear how ben shu describes what. depp suffered. mr depp has millions of fans people who. have who. grew up watching him on 21. jump street which is something you heard. miss heard mock on one of the tapes that.

was played to you. or they grew up watching him play the. swashbuckling pirate captain jack. sparrow in the pirates of the caribbean. movies or willy wonka mr depp means. something to those people. and those people mean a lot to mr duff. he's a fond memory from childhood or. adolescence or adulthood and to tarnish. him. as an abuser. is to destroy him in the eyes of many of.

these people who will never look at him. the same way again. and because of what ms heard. did and because of what she said. mr depp will go to his grave knowing. matter knowing no matter what he does. no matter the outcome of this trial. there are people who used to look up to. him who now believe that he beat a woman. which is the worst thing you can say. about a man. really emphasizing how he lost his. reputation his career his livelihood by.

the way that's the reason that we see. such an outpouring of support for depp. with people cheering for him on the. outside of court dressing up bringing. alpacas i mean he has a fan base unlike. anything i have ever seen. and when we talk about damages there are. compensatory and punitive damages as. options for the jury a form of. compensating for pain and loss but also. punishing the other party by the way. little side note on damages. elaine bredehoff in her closing she.

represents amber herb. she said yeah we sued for 100 million. dollars but look. we aren't really asking for that we're. asking for what's reasonable. got to tell you was a little surprised. by that. i get the idea of it the idea is we're. not really out for the money amber heard. in this trial was accused of being all. out for the money we're doing this for. altruistic reasons we're doing this for. the right cause. makes sense good argument but why even. put in the mind of the jury. that you're not asking for 100 million. dollars why even take that away not sure.

that was the best anyway. moving on to amber heard's closing. arguments her team focused on how insane. and worthless it would be for amber. heard to make up her injuries and. falsely accuse someone of abuse. they really hammered away if the jury. finds just one instance of abuse whether. physical psychological mental emotional. verbal sexual. johnny depp would lose. they discussed the first amendment the.

right to publish an article like amber. heard so she can freely speak about this. subject that she wasn't necessarily. talking about her relationship with. johnny depp per se but more about the. issue of domestic abuse and being a. survivor more generally but jay benjamin. rottenborn heard's other attorney. specifically honed in on what this case. means for domestic abuse survivors in. trying to convince you that mr death has. carried his burden of proof. in proving.

that he was never abusive to amber on. even one occasion. think about the message that mr death. and his attorneys are sending to amber. and by extension to every victim of. domestic abuse everywhere. if you didn't take pictures. it didn't happen. if you did take pictures. they're fake. if you didn't tell your friends you're. lying. and if you did tell your friends. they're part of the hoax.

if you didn't seek medical treatment you. weren't injured. if you did seek medical treatment. you're crazy. if you do everything that you can. to help your spouse the person that you. love. rid himself of the crushing drug and. alcohol abuse that spins him into an. abusive rage-filled monster you're a nag. and if you finally decide that enough is. enough. you've had enough of the fear.

enough of the pain and you have to leave. to save yourself. you're a gold digger. that is the message that mr death is. asking you to send. but he doesn't stop there because in mr. depp's world you don't leave mr death. and if you do. he will start a campaign of global. humiliation against you. a smear campaign that lasts to this very. day. he will do everything he can. to destroy your life.

to destroy your career. that is what they're saying ladies and. gentlemen. that was so important don't victim blame. don't judge them for what they do or. don't do that's not fair that's wrong. all of amber's actions or inactions can. be explained they then turn to the. counter claims again they need to do two. things with these counter claims one. they need to show that adam waldman's. statements saying amber heard's.

allegations are a hoax were defamatory. but not only that but they need to tie. the statements of adam waldman johnny. depp's attorney to depp. so let's talk about the common claim for. a moment. these are adam waldman statements you've. heard mr depp say well why are you why. aren't you suing mr waldman. that isn't that typical of mr depp he. doesn't take responsibility for anything. so now he's going to blame his lawyer. but the evidence is very clear on all. three statements and we'll show them to. you in a minute that he says adam.

waldman mr depp's attorney. says these things. now mr deck says oh i didn't even know. about those until the counter claim well. we know that's not true because mr. waldman's testimony was two months. before those statements were made in. february of 2020 mr depp accompanied mr. waldman to the daily mail the same place. that all three of these statements were. published and he gave him two spliced. audio tapes to try to make it look like. amber was the person who was committing.

the abuse he went with him he knew that. mr waldman was doing this he knew that. mr waldman was launching a campaign. against amber to try to discredit her. and the timing of this we're talking the. statements now are april and june of. 2020 the trial is july of 2020 so. they're launching an attack to try to. discredit amber before the trial in the. uk. that's what happened here and that is mr.

waldman but it's mr depp the judge gave. you three different instructions and. you'll all have them he's acting as his. attorney he has the authority so mr depp. is standing in the shoes of mr waldman. mr waldman is standing in the shoes of. mr death. strong argument there that wallman was. doing the bidding of depp and depp. either knew or authorized these. statements. so all in all after the closing. arguments the jury was provided some. final jury instructions by the judge.

two alternates were released for now if. something happens to a juror during. deliberations those alternates can be. called back and then the jury was sent. out finally to begin their deliberations. they lasted about two hours and then. they were excused for the long weekend. to come back on tuesday you know i get. asked when will the jury get back with a. verdict it's really always impossible to. guess in cases like this a lot of. statements to consider a lot of evidence. to weigh and of course the issue of.

damages. is a whole other animal. thanks for joining us here on sidebar. please subscribe on apple podcast. spotify youtube or wherever you get your. podcast i'm jesse weber speak to you. next time. [Music]. you.