Law&Crime Sidebar - Depp v. Heard Day 8 Recap

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

Law&Crime's Jesse Weber recaps the top three moments from day 8 of the Depp v. Heard defamation lawsuit. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Hey there, everybody and welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. This is where we recap the biggest moments in the day's biggest trials. I'm Jesse Weber. So we're talking the ongoing trial of Johnny Depp v. Amber Hurd out in Fairfax County, Virginia. We just wrapped up day eight. Now, Depp is suing his ex-wife for $50 million claiming defamation, namely that she falsely accused him of domestic violence in a 2018 Washington Post opinion editorial piece, and that that article ruined his life and his career. And she is actually countersuing him for $100 million, saying he defamed her when he orchestrated a public smear campaign calling her a liar and that she's someone who faked her injuries.

Where we last left off, Depp was on the stand being grilled by J. Benjamin Rottenborn. This is one of Amber Heard's lawyers. And before the jury was excused for the weekend, the last thing they heard was this highly disturbing audio recording of Depp seemingly cutting himself in front of Heard. This was when they were together for one of the last times. This is after she sought a temporary restraining order. They were already moving forward with a divorce. Really, really problematic stuff for Depp. But it also does raise the question, why was she recording him at this time?

So testimony began today with Depp once again acknowledging that abuse can take many forms. It's not just physical. And once again, Rottenborn tried to show that Depp abused heard in many of these ways. And he played these audio recordings between the couple. Now, there are several times when Herd recorded Depp without him knowing, like I mentioned, with the cutting. And of course, that is going to be a question of what her attentions were in doing that. She'll obviously have to explain that when she takes the stand. But the content of the recordings doesn't change.

In these recordings, Depp is calling herd highly derogatory and mean names directly to her face. And clearly, her side is trying to show that he was verbally abusing her. But not only that, there are recordings that imploring. violence. In one, she accuses him of putting out cigarettes on her. And another, he warns if they keep fighting and he doesn't walk away, there could be a bloodbath. But then there is another set of clips, and I want you to listen very carefully to what is said. Please, what? This is not. This is not what? This is your last, please? This is your last call. The last one is. Oh, what? I'm afraid of mine. This is not out of me. You stupid.

This is not helping! I don't... You shut off the bat. You heard Miss Hurd say get off me. Right? No, I did not. I heard distant screaming and I heard I'll talk to you later, I'll talk to you later. you later. So did he attack Amber Heard? That's going to be something for the jury to think about.

But from there, Rottenborn finished up his cross-examination of Depp by focusing on the Washington Post article. It's important for defamation because Depp has to show that the words in that article and that article alone caused him reputational damage. And Rottenborn was trying to prove that it wasn't the 2018 Washington Post article that caused Depp's career to take a nosedive that there was bad press about Johnny Depp for years, that it was his own fault for what happened to his career, not Amber Heard, not the Washington Post article. And the questioning continued to support the argument that the Washington Post article not only didn't include any defamatory language, but that it didn't harm Depp. In fact, Rottenborn tried to get Depp to admit

that he can't sue Hurd for anything that she said or did in 2016. It's all about the words of that 2018 article. If you can't show that the 2018 article was false, or hurt your reputation, then you would think that Depp's claim would lose. So when Rottenborn eventually finished up, Depp was questioned again by his own attorney on redirect and a series of audio recordings between Depp and Heard were played. These were a little bit different. The tapes here tended to show that it was Heard who would get violent

and that Depp would try to walk away from the fights. In fact, you hear Depp trying to end things with Amber Heard after throwing off their wedding ring. Is that what it's worth to you? Yeah. Yeah. For you, from all this bitch, these rules, all these... Rules? Because I asked you to stay?

Because I asked you to stay. No, because you're a fucking party. What was it when you asked me to stay? What was it when you asked me to stay? I can't stand it, no. What was it when you asked me to stay? In Australia, you said, you promised me not to leave. me not to leave. You said, you promised me not to leave. What I do?

I thought you would change. What did I do? Not change. What did I do? Did I stay or did I leave? You changed. Did I stay or did I leave? You stayed and you didn't change and you were to fucking come.

I stayed. So I stayed. And I've been a cunt ever since, which is why you told me about every other day, how you couldn't imagine your life without me, including today. So, which guy, does that seem normal to you? Does that seem normal to you? You told me tonight that you couldn't imagine your life without me. And now you're throwing your ring on the ground.

Does that seem normal? That seems sober? You seem normal? You see the definition of normal. You. You. Does that seem normal? You.

Do that seem normal to you? Borderline personality disorder. I'm borderline personality disorder now. When I've been consistent all night saying, don't go, don't fuck this all up, I'm not fighting with you anymore. I've been saying this to you the whole night. I am really sorry we disagreed. You're not perfect. I said this two hours ago.

I'm not perfect. I love you. But we don't have to do this every time we disagree. No. No, we don't. Please. Please. Come here.

Come here. Please come here. Please come here. I'm not insulting you. I have not been insulting you. I love you. Johnny, what do you mean me to do? I love you.

Stop. I'll smack me on the ear again. I love you. I want to smack my ear again. It's a fucking resounds in my fucking cranny. Do you like that? I love you. Oh?

I love you. Sorry. I love you. I love me. I love me. I don't love you that much. No, I don't. I don't.

I do not love you that much. To give it myself? No, do not. I will not give it myself. And you want me to be something a curse, goddamn parent, or a fucking weird frenzy dog. No, I won't be it, you know? Or your goddamn fucking lover

calm down contagion I'm not going to be that shit baby stop no I don't want to be with you these are the fucking rules fuck god

so you're making this good thing you're doing this up I'm making this up really that fuck all the else is an insult

so in a case where they try to show that Johnny Depp is controlling in a lunatic they're kind of reversing the narrative here and saying that she was trying to control him. She was trying to trap him, and he kept trying to escape,

that he was the victim in all this. But arguably, the most fascinating audio of the day was one where Hurd seemed very concerned about the fallout from her accusing Johnny Depp of abuse. It's been going on too long, however. We just got to stop this. It's got to stop it. I don't know how to get my reputation back.

we write a letter together saying that we're going to take this out of the public eye saying that we're going to try and work this out on our own saying that the media has created such a hateful storm that it's sickening that we love each other and that we want to make sure each other is okay

have we had fights in the past have we had this or whatever they already know all that don't matter here's the deal it matters I have been you have no idea

every ounce of my credibility has been taken from and done so in a dishonest right you know Amber for the you know

The abuse, the abuse thing is, is, we've got to deal with that, yeah. We've got to deal with that, I don't have any way of my credit. It's my credibility, you know what? And why did you put that out there? I did not. You forced me, your team forced me to by going on the offense. I didn't force you to. Forget it.

Forget it. You don't believe what I say. You don't believe what I say. But I did not, I did not choose it. You got every step of the way. It's been an offense. I did not put this anywhere. I didn't.

Let me talk to the fucking team. I did not call the cops. I know. I don't call the cops. You told Iowa we called the cops. I did not, I did not call the cops, and I did not give them any statement when they came. I've been trying to protect you. You told I.

You told I ought to call it counts. When, while it was happening? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, because the last time that it got crazy between us, I really did think I was going to lose my life, and I thought you would do it on accident. And I told you that.

I said, oh, my God, I thought the first time. Amber, I lost a fucking finger, man. Come on. I had a f***. I had a f***. A mineral, can a jar, can a mineral spirit's thrown? on my nose. I mean, you can please tell people that it was a fair fight.

So it makes you wonder, why did she come forward with these allegations? Were they true? And she seems awfully worried about her credibility. Well, after so many days, Depp finally finished his testimony, but his case is far from over because we still have more witnesses that his side is going to call. We next heard from Ben King. He was the house manager in Australia, and he was there after the infamous finger incident. Remember, the question is, did Andrews?

Amber Hurd throw a vodka bottle at Johnny Depp and sever his finger? Or did Depp really cut his own finger like he originally told people? Depp said that he wanted to protect Amber Hurd. That's why he lied about her attacking him with the bottle. It's kind of curious since earlier in the day when Johnny Depp was on the stand, a text message was read and it was a message to Johnny Depp's doctor and Depp is basically completely bad-mouthing Amber Heard saying the worst stuff about her. But he doesn't say in that message that she threw the bottle.

He continues to say that he cut himself. So again, why protect her? Why say the worst things, but then not say that she threw the bottle? It's a bit weird. So what really happened? Well, Ben King testified that he found Johnny Depp's finger, but listen to what else he noticed. And where exactly was the finger in the bar area? Directly below the bar.

I mean, the bar set up like a conventional bar that stuck out from a war. and with a marble top, there's a big chunk out of that as well, like on the staircase, directly at the end of the bar, there was a scrunched-up piece of kitchen paper, if you like, tissue, with lots of blood around it, on it. So I thought that was probably a pretty good place to look. And it was within that scrunched-up piece of paper on the tiled floor at the end of the bar,

the base of the bar by one of the bar stools. Was there any property damage around the finger? Yes, a fair bit on the floor around the area. There were puddles of what smelled like alcohol to me. There seemed like several drinking glasses. A couple of bottles. One was a Stoliknaya vodka bottle. And at the end of the bar, as I said, there was a big chunk

out of the bar itself, the marble top, at the end of the bar, there was plaster damage right at the end of the bar on the wall. Behind the bar that smashed and cracked. There's a blue mirror that stretched that whole span of behind the bar. Lots of cans, again, behind the bar on the floor, broken window at the end of the bar,

and more plastered work damage on the wall above the sink. It was sort of a kitchenette bar, if you like, as well. So it seems at least possible that maybe she did throw that bottle, especially since he testified she said something very interesting to him afterwards. While she wouldn't go into a full explanation of the incident, she did allegedly tell Mr. King, have you ever been so angry with someone, you just lost it? Thanks for joining us here on Sidebar.

Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. This has been Jesse Weber. speak to you soon. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.