Amber Heard And Johnny Depp Case Study Example

Ex-spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard will be fighting in court over a defamation lawsuit. The defamation lawsuit was Depp against Heard for $50 million which led Heard to counter sue for $100 million. The case is currently being held at Fairfax County Court, Virginia and is expected to go on for the next five to six weeks.

First some background information on this case:

Actor Johnny Depp, known for his roles such as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts franchise married actress Amber Heard, known for her role as Mera in the DC Universe, in 2015.

In May 2016 Heard entered a courthouse to file for a divorce against Depp with a bruise on her face, alleging that Depp had caused it by throwing an iPhone at her. A few days prior, a complaint was made to the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) from the address of Depp and Heard's home. However, an LAPD spokesperson stated that the investigation into the claim bore “no evidence of a crime”. Due to this claim, Judge Carl moor granted a temporary restraining order on Depp but eventually Heard rescinded her domestic abuse restraining order Depp gave Heard $7 million as a part of a divorce settlement and the divorce was finalized in 2017.

Here is why there is a new court case:

In 2018 Amber Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in which she spoke on the treatment of women in domestic-abuse cases. This set off numerous lawsuits and countersuits from Depp’s legal team. Although it does not mention Depp by name, this Washington Post article set off this current defamation case for $50 million, Depp’s lawyers are arguing that the op-ed was about Depp. This led to him getting dropped from projects such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Fantastic Beasts four days after the release of the article. Johnny Depp is denying that he ever abused Heard. He stated Heard is not a victim of domestic-abuse but the perpetrator. Depp's lawyers are claiming that Amber created an elaborate hoax to cripple Depp's career. This caused Heard to countersue him for $100 million dollars.

What happened in day one:

In the opening statements Depps lawyers, Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez, explained that Johnny Depp’s name is now associated with a lie and you are going to learn that (Heard) is a profoundly troubled person who manipulated people around her similarly to how she manipulated Mr Depp. Depp’s lawyer said how this case is about how damaging words can be, especially for Depp given the fact his career depends on his public image, and how Heard created these lies for her own personal benefits. Depp’s lawyers then stated that no one had accused Johnny Depp of being violent with a woman. His lawyers ended their opening statements by pointing out that the evidence put out in this trial will contradict the story Heard presented to the world in May 2016.

Heard’s lawyers, Ben Rottenborn and Elaine Bredehoft, in their opening statements said that all inflammatory things Depp’s lawyers had stated were designed to mislead us from the truth. They stated that the article was not about Depp, and alleged that Depp was verbally, physically and sexually violent towards Heard. They also stated that they are mainly going to focus on the evidence which includes drugs and alcohol abuse by Depp as well as how Depp kicked Amber in the back. Her lawyers closed their opening statements by stating that Heard is protected by the free speech of the first amendment.

The first person to testify was Johnny Depp’s sister, Christi Dembrowski. She testified that she and Depp had a difficult childhood with an abusive mother and Depp learned to hide from that abuse. His sister worked as a personal manager for Depp and said she would frequently book an extra hotel room if Heard started a fight. Dembrowski stated that Heard would verbally abuse Depp frequently, recalling a time where Heard called Depp “an old fat man”.Heard’s Lawyers then questioned Dembrowski on Depp’s drug and alcohol usage.

As of now all we know about the future of this case is that there are rumors that there are going to be some very high profile celebrities testifying such as Elon Musk, James Franco and Paul Bettany as well as testimonies from Heard and Depp themselves. This court case is one of Hollywood's most publicized and high profile cases and this proven by the fact both Depp and Heard hired lawyers who are at the top of their game and recognised globally.

The court case is live on the Law and Crime Youtube channel.