Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterAfter six weeks of trial, attorneys for Amber Heard and Johnny Depp made their closing arguments to a Virginia jury on Friday, with each side making the case that their client was defamed in the wake of the couple’s divorce.Each side argued that the jurors had gotten to see the “real” Johnny Depp — though they differed wildly about who that is.
Depp’s attorney, Benjamin Chew, presented him as a “decent, well-liked man” whose life had been destroyed “by a vicious lie” that he had abused Heard.Heard’s lawyer, Ben Rottenborn, countered with audio and video recordings and text messages in which Depp poured out rage against Heard, including one text in which he said he hoped that “that cunt’s rotting corpse is decomposing in the fucking trunk of a Honda Civic.” “These words are a window into the heart and mind of America’s favorite pirate,” Rottenborn said. “This is the real Johnny Depp.”Depp is suing Heard for $50 million, claiming that she destroyed his reputation and his livelihood when she wrote in a 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post that she was a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Heard is countersuing for $100 million, claiming that her own career has been devastated by his attorney’s claim that she perpetrated an “abuse hoax.”The seven-person jury has seen days of testimony from both Depp and Heard, as well as their friends, former friends, relatives, agents, lawyers and employees.
They have also seen dueling testimony from experts in psychiatry and substance abuse, as well as two competing hand surgeons, who gave differing opinions on how the tip of Depp’s middle finger was cut off in Australia.
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