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Johnny Depp‘s lawyers have filed a motion to strike an ‘inappropriate argument’ made by Amber Heard‘s attorney in their closing argument which had asked jurors to consider the ‘message’ that ruling against her would send to other domestic abuse victims.
On Tuesday, Depp’s team asked Judge Penney Azcarate to instruct the jury, who are currently deliberating the defamation claims made by the feuding ex’s, to disregard that portion of the closing argument.
In their written argument, Depp’s attorney’s said Heard’s lawyer told the jury that its decision in the case would send a message to ‘every victim of domestic abuse everywhere.’
They argued that this meant the jury was being asked to focus on a larger social issue rather than the individual case set before them.
But Judge Azcarate said she would not entertain the motion because the jury are already deliberating.
Johnny Depp’s lawyers (pictured leaving the court on Tuesday) have filed a motion to strike an ‘inappropriate argument’ made by Amber Heard’s attorney in their closing argument which had asked jurors to consider the ‘message’ that ruling against her would send to other domestic abuse victims
Actor Johnny Depp at the Royal Albert Hall, London, appearing alongside Jeff Beck on Tuesday night
Heard’s attorney Benjamin Rottenborn told the jury in his closing argument on Friday that a ruling against the actress ‘sends a message that no matter what you do as an abuse victim, you always have to do more.’
‘No matter how honest you are about your own imperfections and your own shortcomings in a relationship, you have to be perfect in order for people to believe you. Don’t send that message,’ Rottenborn said.
Depp’s attorneys argued that Rottenborn’s argument improperly asked the jury to focus on a larger social objective than the case they are being asked to decide.
‘Such argument by Ms. Heard’s counsel improperly invites the jury to decide the case `based on passion and prejudice’ and a specific jury instruction is necessary to cure this impropriety,’ Depp’s lawyers argued.
The judge told Depp’s attorneys in court that she would not entertain the motion because the case is in the hands of the jury now.
A public relations firm for Heard did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on the motion.
Lawyer for US actor Johnny Depp, Camille Vasquez (2-R) walks to her car following the first full day of jury deliberation in the defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax on Tuesday
It comes as the jury finished a second day of deliberations on Tuesday without reaching a verdict in the defamation claims of Depp and Heard.
The seven-person civil jury heard closing arguments Friday and deliberated for about two hours before leaving for the long Memorial Day weekend. Jurors then deliberated another seven hours on Tuesday.
They are scheduled to resume deliberations Wednesday in Fairfax County Circuit Court.
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million, accusing her of libeling him with a 2018 op-ed she wrote describing herself as ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse.’ Heard filed a $100 million counterclaim against the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star after his lawyer called her allegations a hoax. Each accuses the other of destroying their career.
Testimony during the six-week trial featured a litany of lurid details of their short marriage. Heard testified that Depp physically or sexually assaulted her more than a dozen times.
During his testimony, Depp testified that he never struck Heard, that she concocted the abuse allegations, and that she was the one who physically attacked him, multiple times.
Amber Heard is pictured in the courtroom during closing arguments in Fairfax on Friday
During closing arguments, both sides told the jury that a verdict in their favor would give their clients their lives back.
Meanwhile, Depp has continued his run of UK shows with rock veteran Jeff Beck. Pictures showed the actor on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in west London on Tuesday night for the second night in a row.
Depp appeared with a white guitar, and wearing a peaked cap and multiple scarves.
He joined Beck at the venue on Monday and Tuesday night after surprising fans with an appearance at Sheffield City Hall on Sunday.
Depp was joined by his ex-girlfriend and British model Kate Moss backstage following his performance with Beck.
Moss was joined inside by former TV personality Sharon Osborne, 69, who arrived for an after-party following the end of the concert.
Moss – who last week gave evidence to the US court via video link – arrived at the venue early at around 8pm, 90 minutes before Depp was due onstage, clambering out of a blue Mercedes and being escorted by security into the stage door entrance.
Centre stage: Depp performed covers of John Lennon , Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix at the venue on Tuesday evening
Make way: Kate Moss was alone as she exited London’s Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday evening, shortly after reuniting with ex-boyfriend Johnny Depp backstage following his cameo performance with rock legend Jeff Beck
Main man: Depp (right) at the Royal Albert Hall, London, appearing alongside Jeff Beck on Tuesday night
After Beck’s set began at 8.40pm, Depp headed onstage at 9.23pm to perform several songs with a British music legend considered among the greatest guitar players in history.
Introducing the 58-year-old – who he told the 5,000-strong crowd had ‘been through some s**t – he said: ‘I met this bloke in Japan. He knocked on the door and we burst out laughing straight away. You may recognise him. He’s been through some s**t.’
To calls from fans of ‘Johnny’ and ‘We love you Johnny’, Depp took to the stage wearing a waistcoat, white and red checked short-sleeve shirt, patterned cravat, and Peaky Blinders style cap, and immediately grabbed the mic.
The actor and Beck played seven songs including Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing, John Lennon’s Isolation, and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On before departing the stage at 9.50pm, blowing kisses to the audience.
Meanwhile, Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren said on Monday that it was ‘great’ to work with Heard in Aquaman during an interview with Redline Steel CEO Colin Wayne.
‘I had a great experience with her. She was nice to the crew, nice to everybody. Just down to earth,’ Lundgren said.
REVEALED: Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard jury must answer FORTY-TWO questions – 24 on actor’s claims and 18 on ex-wife’s – before they reach verdict in $100M fight and decide damages – as case that gripped the world closes
By Daniel Bates for DailyMail.com
The Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard $100million libel case is so complicated, that the verdict sheet has 42 questions the jury must answer before the deliver a verdict, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The document was released by the court in Fairfax, Virginia and shows that there are 24 questions for Depp’s claims and 18 for Heard’s counterclaim.
A verdict form is used to formalize the jury’s decision on the case.
Spanning eight pages, it means the jury has to decide on dozens of matters before reaching their verdict.
There is also a section where they will have to decide on the damages for Depp and Heard – and any punitive damages.
The case is now being deliberated by the jury after six weeks of graphic and raw evidence about Depp and Heard’s stormy four year relationship and 15 month marriage.
Jurors in the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard $100million libel case are being required to answer 42 questions concerning both actors’ claims before being allowed deliver a verdict, documents filed in federal court in Fairfax, Virginia, reveal
Depp is seeking $50m from Heard for allegedly defaming him with an op-ed in the Washington Post in 2018 which claimed she was a survivor of domestic abuse.
Heard, pictured here with attorney Elaine Bredehoff on Friday, countersued for $100m claiming that Depp’s lawyer defamed her by claiming her allegations were an ‘abuse hoax’
Depp is seeking $50m from Heard for allegedly defaming him with an op-ed in the Washington Post in 2018 which claimed she was a survivor of domestic abuse.
According to the Pirates of the Caribbean star, even though it didn’t mention him by name it was obviously about him.
Heard countersued for $100m claiming that Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman defamed her by claiming her allegations were an ‘abuse hoax’.
The verdict sheet, called a ‘Special Verdict Form’ asks the jury eight questions about each of the three statements at issue in Heard’s op-ed.
They were that Heard ‘spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change’.
The document, filed in federal court last week, contains a section where jurors will have to decide on the damages for Depp
One of the statements jurors were asked to discern if inflammatory, made by Heard in a Washington Post piece that alleged she was abused by Depp
The second statement is: ‘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 third is: ‘I had the rare vantage point of seeing in real time how institutions protect men accused of abuse’.
In each case the jury has to ‘find that Mr. Depp has proven all the elements of defamation’.
If the answer is no, then they can move on to the next statement.
But if they answer yes then the jury has to confirm all the necessary elements of defamation: that the statement as published by Heard, it was about Depp, that it was false, has a defamatory implication, that it was ‘designed and intended by Heard’ and that it ‘conveyed a defamatory implication’ to someone who saw it other than Depp.
It is six years ago to the day that Amber Heard filed a restraining order against Depp, which Vasquez said ‘ruined’ the actor’s life
Closing arguments finifshed in the blockbuster defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Friday. The proceedings saw Depp’s all-star attorney Camille Vasquez began by labeling Amber Heard an ‘abuser’
The final question for each statement in the op-ed is whether it was proven by ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that Heard acted with ‘actual malice’.
The test is to show that the statements in question were made knowing they were false, the threshold for defamation.
For Heard’s claims against Depp, the jury has to answer six questions for each of the three statements at issue made by Waldman, Depp’s lawyer, to the media in 2020.
They were that Heard used ‘fake sexual violence allegations as both a sword and a shield,’ that the claims were an ‘ambush, a hoax’ and that Heard and her friends faked a crime scene, and that the allegations were an ‘abuse hoax’.
In each case the jury has to answer whether Heard has proven all the elements of defamation.
If yes then the jury has to go through each of the necessary elements: did Waldman make the statements while acting as an agent for Depp, was the statement about Heard, was it seen by someone other than Head and was it false.
‘There is an abuser in this courtroom but it’s not Mr. Depp. There’s a victim of abuse in this court but it’s not Miss Heard,’ Vaquez said Friday. ‘Miss Heard is in fact the abuser and Mr. Depp is the abused.’ Jurors will likely deliver a verdict in the complex libel case this week
The jury also has to find that Waldman acted with ‘actual malice.’
For both Depp and Heard’s claims the jury has to enter an amount for damages and punitive damages.
Both sides are asking for at least $350,000 in punitive damages, plus legal fees and court costs.
While Depp has not disclosed how much he has spent on attorneys, Heard told the court she has blown $6m on legal fees, though that number may have included a previous trial in London in 2020 which covered similar allegations.
During closing arguments on Friday Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez described Heard as a ‘deeply troubled person’.
She said: ‘There is an abuser in this courtroom but it’s not Mr. Depp. There’s a victim of abuse in this court but it’s not Miss Heard.
‘Miss Heard is in fact the abuser and Mr Depp is the abused.’
Heard’s lawyer Benjamin Rottenborn urged the jury not to become an ‘accomplice’ in sending a message to survivors of abuse that they have to be perfect.
He said that abusive texts shown to the jury were a ‘window into the soul of America’s favorite pirate’, referring to Depp’s role as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Depp was pictured smiling and waving to fans when he left the courthouse while Amber Heard was seen hugging her lawyer as jurors began deliberations Friday.
He left and shook hands with police officers before appeasing the large crowd of fans outside who were armed with banners and cameras.
Heard‘s legal team had told the jury in closing arguments to ‘think about the message’ Johnny Depp and his legal team are sending Heard and ‘by extension every victim of domestic violence.’
Taking the floor Friday, Heard’s lawyer Benjamin Rottenborn said, ‘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 they’re lying. If you did tell your friends they’re part of the hoax.’
‘Failure to seek medical attention meant you were not injured,’ Rottenborn said. ‘If you do seek medical treatment then you’re crazy and if you do everything to help your spouse rid himself of drugs and drink then ‘you’re a nag.’
Rottenborn continued, ‘And if you decide enough is enough and you have to leave to save yourself you’re a gold digger. That’s the message Mr. Depp is asking you to send.
He said that in Johnny Depp’s ‘world’ you don’t leave him, and if you do ‘he will start campaign of global humiliation against you.
‘He will do everything he can to destroy your life, to destroy your career. That’s what they’re trying to get you to be an accomplice to.’
‘Mr. Depp cannot and will not take responsibility for his own actions.’
Jurors are set to resume deliberations Tuesday, with a verdict in the coming days imminent.
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