Depp v. Heard: Complete Verdict Coverage

[00:00:00] Vinnie Politan: I'm Vinnie Politan. Welcome to this very special closing arguments live from Fairfax County, Virginia. It is verdict night in one of the biggest cases we have ever covered. One of the most bizarre cases we have ever covered. Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard. Now, for those of you who know the history between these two, they got married, they got divorced, but there was no divorce trial. Instead, we've had a couple of defamation trials. The first one was over in the UK. Amber Heard, not a party to the case, but a big part of the case. It involved allegations that he was a wife beater. And in that case in the UK, Johnny Depp lost. And it was the decision that was made by one 71-year-old man. Okay? System of justice a little different in the UK. Not saying it's better, not saying it's worse, but it's different. And the verdict was delivered by one person who doesn't go through the same process vetting that we have here in the United States where it is seven citizens in Fairfax County, Virginia, who decided this case. And they went through a system of vetting. So you find out, you know, is there a reason why they shouldn't serve on the jury? Is there a reason why they shouldn't make that decision? And that's an important part of every trial here in the United States is getting a fair and impartial jury. Both sides have an opportunity to question the prospective jurors. The judge has an opportunity. So if anyone has any sort of leaning one way or the other or some sort of a conflict, I don't know, like maybe your son-in-law works for someone connected to the case, then you'd be off the case. So you get seven people who just come to court because they got a notice in the mail and they bring no preconceived notions of what the case is about. And that's what happened here. Because this case, think about it. This was the ultimate he said, she said. There were two versions of what happened. There was Johnny Depp's version and there was Amber Heard's version. And we sat here for weeks to listen to both of them. We heard firsthand accounts from from Johnny Depp, firsthand accounts from Amber Heard. So the seven people who came down here to the courthouse and had an opportunity to hear those stories. Evaluate the witnesses. Think about what they're saying. Does it make sense? Does it does it jive with the rest of the evidence in the case? And then they put it all together. That's what happened here. Didn't happen over there. Different system, not saying it's worse, not saying it's better, but trying to put some perspective on what happened here. Now, another difference here in our trial in the United States is us, Court TV, right? It's a he said, she said. So they said it, but we got to see it. So it's not just words of what was testified to. We got to see and hear the demeanor. How important is that? It's not just what you say. It's how you say it. That's how we we listen to someone and determine, are they telling me the truth? Are they being straight with me? Are they making something up? Are they exaggerating? Are they lying about something? So it's not just the words. It's the way they testify. So we, this time around, got to see it because of the Court TV cameras and the Court TV microphones inside the courtroom. And we saw what happened on TikTok, right? Overwhelming, overwhelming. I mean, this is where the public spoke, right? They speak on the other platforms as well. And it's similar, but it really blew up on TikTok where everyone listened and watched Amber Heard on the witness stand, didn't buy it, didn't believe it. And guess what? The seven jurors in the jury box inside the courthouse, in the courtroom were in sync with what was happening on social media. So in this case, we got to see justice and understand justice. It wasn't just words that were spoken. It was testimony that was given, testimony that was evaluated, evaluated by everyone watching and evaluated by the seven jurors who delivered this verdict. [00:04:42] Speaker 2: All right, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what I need you to do, I need to give the forms back to you. When you find for a defamatory statement, one or more, you need to fill out the compensatory damages. It has to be at least a dollar for compensatory damages and up to whatever you feel the damages should be. And for punitive damages, you can put a zero there or you can fill out that as well, but I need those lines filled out. Okay. All right. So if I can have you retire back to the [00:05:10] Speaker 3: deliberation room and do that for me. Okay. As to the statement appearing in the online op-ed entitled, "Amber Heard, I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." In the Washington Post online edition, quote, "I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." End quote. Do you find that Mr. Depp has proven all the elements of defamation? Answer? Yes. Two, as to the statement appearing in the op-ed entitled, "A Transformative Moment for Women" in the Washington Post print edition and the online op-ed, Amber Heard, "I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." In the Washington Post online edition, quote, "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." End quote. Do you find that Mr. Depp has proven all the elements of defamation? Answer? Yes. Three, as to the statement appearing in the op-ed entitled, "A Transformative Moment for Women for Women" in the Washington Post print edition and the online op-ed, Amber Heard, "I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." In the Washington Post online edition, quote, "I had the rare vantage point of seeing in real time how institutions protect men accused of abuse." End quote. Do you find that Mr. Depp has proven all the elements of defamation? Answer? Yes. As against Amber Heard, we the jury award compensatory damages in the amount of 10 million dollars. As against Amber Heard, we the jury award punitive damages in the amount of 5 million dollars. One, as to this statement appearing in the April 8th, 2020 online edition of the Daily Mail, quote, "Amber Heard and her friends in the media use fake sexual violence allegations as both a sword and shield depending on their needs. They have selected some of her sexual violence hoax facts as the sword, inflicting them on the public." And Mr. Depp, do you find that Ms. Heard has proven all the elements of defamation? Answer? No. As to this statement appearing in the April 27th, 2020 online edition of the Daily Mail, quote, "Quite simply, this was an ambush, a hoax. They set Mr. Depp up by calling the cops, but the first attempt did not 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 story straight under the direction of a lawyer and publicist, and then placed a second call to 911." End quote. Do you find that Ms. Heard has proven all the elements of defamation? Answer? Yes. Three. As to this statement appearing in the April 27th, 2020 online edition of the Daily Mail, quote, "We've reached the beginning of the end of Ms. Heard's abuse hoax against Johnny Depp." End quote. Do you find that Ms. Heard has proven all the elements of defamation? Answer? No. As against John C. Depp II, we, the jury, award compensatory damages in the amount of $2 million. As against John C. Depp II, we, the jury, award punitive damages in the amount of $0. [00:09:23] Vinnie Politan: What a day here in Fairfax County, Virginia. You've got to bring in some guests who are inside the courtroom, know a lot about what happened, give us a lot of perspective tonight. Joining me, of course, Court TV legal correspondent Chanley Painter with us. Next to her, Nick Wallace, journalist. You've got to check him out in the reporting Depp v. Heard podcast. Amazing insight into this case. Make sure you download and listen. All right, Chanley, I want to start with you. You're in there. Take us into the courtroom. The moment, the tension, some of the things that our cameras didn't necessarily pick up. [00:09:56] Speaker 4: What happened? All right, Vinny, let's start at the beginning. I mean, it was electric inside the courtroom. First of all, we had the gallery packed, not as packed as testimony, but still full of Johnny Depp fans. And of course, the deputies being strict, no talking. So it was like silent. Everyone kept taking deep breaths. And I could hear whispers of five minutes away, three minutes away waiting for the judge to enter. And of course, Amber Heard entered very dramatically. She smiled, big smile, to her attorneys, sat there. And then the judge entered. Now, I always have my eyes on the jury. The jury enters the first time, none of them looking towards Amber Heard. They seemed focused. They seemed serious, competent, handed over the verdict form. They were told, go back and work, fill it out. But when they came back, finally. The second time. The second time. Entered the courtroom the same way. Amber Heard looked to her sister Whitney in the gallery behind her and mouthed, I love you, sis. Wow. And then, of course, the verdicts were read. It took quite a while for the verdicts to be read. The jury had no reaction. They were stoic. Nothing really shown on their faces. There was a slight moment where the four person, the one young man on the front row, probably 20s or 30s, dressed up today for court, wore his sports coat. He, before they transitioned to the verdicts for Amber, he had kind of this, lifted his head a little bit, took a deep breath, sigh. That was interesting to me, given what was to come. And now the verdicts read, everyone leaves. And Amber quickly left the courtroom as well after hugging her attorneys. But they did issue a statement on behalf of Amber Heard. She didn't speak to the media, of course. But in part, her statement read, "The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I'm heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still has not, still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women." It is a setback. It goes on for several more paragraphs there for what Amber Heard is feeling after this verdict. And the big thing, I mean, Johnny Depp wasn't [00:12:03] Vinnie Politan: here. Right. Not here. It was noticeable. Did he release a statement? He did release a statement [00:12:10] Speaker 4: through his spokesperson. It is a long statement, but here is what it says in part. At the beginning, it says, "Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me, were forever changed, all in the blink of an eye. False, very serious, and criminal allegations were levied at me via the media, which triggered an endless barrage of hateful content, although no charges were ever brought against me." He goes on to thank, of course, the resounding support that he's received in this and acknowledges the court, the judge, the jurors, his awesome legal team, of course, and finally finishes up by saying the best is yet to come, and a new chapter has finally begun. Truth never perishes. [00:12:54] Vinnie Politan: Okay, a little bit of confusion here with the damages. Just do a little bit of math for us [00:12:59] Speaker 4: and get us to what's the bottom line here. I went to law school, so I wouldn't have to do math, but the jury had to go back and figure something out. They agreed for Johnny Depp. Now, finding all three statements were defamatory towards him, rewarded him $10 million in compensatory damages. 10 million, got it, go. And then 5 million in punitive damages, meaning that these statements were made indeed with actual malice. Now, they did not know there's a cap of punitive damages here in the state of Virginia. So it'll be reduced. It will be reduced to 350,000. Okay, 350K, got you. The judge did make that note, and then for Amber Heard, because they did find that one of the three statements she countersued Depp for was defamatory towards her. So they rewarded her $2 million in [00:13:42] Vinnie Politan: compensatory damages and $0 in punitive. So at the end of the day, it's $8.35 million from Amber Heard to Johnny Depp, which if you subtract the $7 million from the divorce, he's up $1.35. Makes sense. Basically. Okay. He did the math for me. I want to hear from you, Chanley, because I have you right here. Give us a little perspective on this case, this trial, this moment. Unbelievable, [00:14:09] Speaker 4: surreal. It's difficult to put into words the magnitude of the last six, well, now almost seven weeks of this trial. We were here from the very beginning, Vinny, jury selection day, and it has been unreal to witness in person how the crowds, I'll use your word, avalanche, an avalanche of support descended upon Fairfax City, Virginia. I mean, dozens and dozens of fans lined up, as Nick well knows, early morning, sometimes 24 hours ahead of time to gain a wristband, to get in line, to have a seat inside the courtroom. That's the back of the courthouse. It swells, the throngs of fans lining up, security has to be in place to see Johnny Depp come and go every day. We see signs, we see people dressed up as pirates. We see alpacas, your favorite, my favorite, the alpacas out and about. People from far and wide here to be a part of this time, really in history. This will go down in the history books [00:15:03] Vinnie Politan: as one of those landmark cases. It really is in the history of Court TV as well. All right, Nick Wallace sitting patiently by. I wanted you here. Yeah, yeah. Not just sitting patiently. It's been a long day for you, I know, so I appreciate you being here. I just want, because you were there at the UK trial, you were here for this trial. You're, give me your perspective, what you're thinking about tonight in this moment. [00:15:24] Speaker 5: We've got two completely opposite results. And I thought what you said at the beginning of the program about the jury verdicts from an American jury of peers who come with no side when they're selected. And I was there when I met you on the very first day during jury selection, and I saw how fair that process is. And they took exactly the same view as the greatest American public from what they saw on Court TV. They saw through Amber Heard, and the jury saw through Amber Heard. They were not convinced on the basis of truth that what was said, what she wrote in her op-ed for the Washington Post in 2018 was anywhere close to being a correct interpretation of whatever experience she's gone through. And she has questions to answer now. She might have convinced a judge in the UK on the basis that he found her to be a credible witness, despite the judge actively ignoring some evidence that went against her credibility, for instance, the smuggling of the dogs into Australia. And he put that to one side, clearly found her credible, otherwise he would not have made the findings that he did in the UK trial. But now she's been on worldwide television, examined very, very closely on really strict tram lines by a jury. The amount of evidence that they get to see is very, very tightly controlled and argued up until the very, very point it reaches them. So you have to look at this process as being utterly transparent and completely fair. And it's amazing that it matches what it seems like most of the general public have seen and drawn their own conclusions throughout the duration of this trial. So I think there will be doctoral theses written about the difference between the two results in the UK and the US. Yes, they were slightly different in content. And yes, of course, he was seeing a newspaper and not Amber Heard over there. But a lot of the truth of the matter was substantially the same. So how did you come up with such a diametrically opposite result? [00:17:14] Vinnie Politan: It's unbelievable. Nick, I appreciate you staying late. Great job. Again, check out his podcast, reporting Depp v. Heard. Chanley Painter will still be with us. But I want to bring in another guest right now, someone else we've been speaking to throughout the course of this trial. Dominic Patton, senior editor for Deadline Hollywood joins us from L.A. Dominic, thanks so much for joining us here on verdict night. I always appreciate your perspective, your insight. I have one big question for you tonight. Did Johnny Depp get his career back today? No, not at all. I think that Johnny Depp, [00:17:50] Speaker 6: because I think that this was a messy mixed verdict. And I think that it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. There's obviously going to be an appeal. And I think that you're seeing already some of the reaction we're seeing. You know, Amber Heard's PR people chose their words very carefully. We're seeing a reaction here about in an America that's already stunned from probably seeing Roe versus Wade overturned. This is now being framed in as a as an attack against women, as a justification of attack against women. The fact of the matter is, Vinny, and by the way, you guys have been doing an amazing job there, both in the studio and on site in Virginia, the great old dominion. This was a case of bad lawyering, my friend. Bad lawyering. They should have had this. What? By whom? By Amber's side. By Amber's side. They should have had this. I saw again, again, the closing argument by Ben Rottenburn, who was one of Amber's main lawyers, when he took this right down and laser pinned it onto the First Amendment and that these were issues of the First Amendment. And yet somehow, within minutes of him finishing that, her other attorney then started getting dragged into the weeds again, dragged into the weeds again about what this was all about. Johnny Depp's lawyers, you know, I've been very critical of them and I'll continue to be. But they laid a trap. They laid, as you called it earlier, that he said, she said trap. And they and Amber Heard's lawyers fell right into that trap when they should have stepped back from the weeds, in my opinion, and said, hey, this is about the First Amendment. We have some audio tapes here of what we we believe are verbal abuse. There was at the very least a headbutt, which he might think was accidental and she doesn't. But let's say a matter of perspective, that's her perspective of domestic of violent abuse. That is also domestic abuse. So we're done, ladies and gentlemen, the jury, because the simple matter is she was telling the truth. But it got so muddled. This was so muddled, my friend, that the verdict is Johnny wins on his case and she wins on the second count of her case, which kind of contradicts their first one. This jury had questions about the headlines they were supposed to be looking at. They had questions about, you know, they didn't even put in damages. There was so much confusion in what was being brought here that I think when you talk to people and I've told you this story before, Vinny, and I'm sorry to bore your viewers with it again. I have had people coming to me during this trial saying, oh, my God, I've been reading your coverage. Why do you think Amber Heard sued Johnny Depp for domestic abuse? And I've said she never did. What are you talking about? They thought that's what the trial was about. They thought they very little knowledge. You guys have spoken about it eloquently before here about the UK trial where he where Johnny Depp was found on at least 12 occasions by that judge. And as you said, different system, neither better, neither worse. But he was found on that. That was almost negated in this case. Again, the judge said you couldn't talk about it, but they could find ways to talk about it. The lawyering was muddled. [00:20:48] Vinnie Politan: Dominic Patton, senior editor of Deadline Hollywood. Check him out, folks, getting inside information on this story and many, many others. Thanks so much, Dominic. Thank you, my friend. All right. When we come back, folks, we've got a lot to get to. We're going to bring in our guests, analyze everything that happened here today, including statements made by Johnny Depp's team afterwards. The incredible round of applause that they got on the exit from the building. All that straight ahead. Don't go anywhere. We're breaking it down all the way up until 10 o'clock tonight.