Law&Crime Sidebar - Why Did Johnny Depp Settle Assault Case?

Episode Date: July 14, 2022

Johnny Depp and Rocky Brooks, who accused him of assault on a movie set in 2017, settled a civil suit that was scheduled for trial later this month. Court records show Depp had at least one witness set to testify that Rocky Brooks’ claims weren’t true. So why would he settle? Entertainment lawyer Mitra Ahouraian discusses why Depp settled and drops a bombshell about what’s up next for the actor.GUEST:Mitra Ahouraian, Entertainment LawyerLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee 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. Johnny Depp settles a civil lawsuit with a man who'd worked on one of his movies just weeks before the trial was scheduled to start. Rocky Brooks had accused Depp of punching him. So why did the case settle? I'm Ann Janette Levy, and welcome to this latest edition of Law and Crimes Sidebar podcast. The trial of Rocky Brooks versus Johnny Depp was scheduled for the end of July, and there were rumblings that the case might settle. There were some talks going on. Well, Monday, a notice of settlement was filed with the court in.

in Los Angeles. And here's just a little bit of background about what this case is really about. Brooks was working on the set of City of Lies back in 2017. That movie tells the story of a detective who worked to try to solve the murders of Tupac Shakur and the notorious B.I.G. in Los Angeles, Brooks claimed in a lawsuit that Johnny Depp became angry one night when Brooks told him they'd have to stop shooting at a certain time because a permit for shooting was expiring. Brooks claimed Depp punched him in the ribs and then Depp offered him $100,000 to punch him in the face and use some curse words, the F word, while he was doing all of this. Oddly enough, though, there was a photo on Rocky Brooks's phone. Rocky Brooks and Johnny Depp posed for a photo at the end of that evening and it

later became part of the court case. But Brooks's account of what happened that night was actually disputed in a court document by a woman named Emma Danoff, who was actually working on the film. She said it was actually Brooks, who accosted a homeless woman who was African American. She was sitting on a bench. And she said Johnny Depp went over and told him that he couldn't talk to her that way. Danoff wrote in the court document that she had 40 times stamped photos that contradicted Brooks' account of Depp punching him. Depp was also asked about this in a videotape deposition. During this time, the monitor spoke with a security officer with Gilmore and Associates.

He explained to the monitor that he felt threatened by the location manager. He showed the monitor a video of Rocky, the location manager, flipping him off and aggressively getting in his face. The monitor spoke to Rocky about the altercation and asked him to take a breather. Rocky seemed to back down. There was a lot of tension on the set at this time while the production tried to finish the scene. A lot of moving parts and personality conflicts. Do you remember any of this?

occurring specifically? No. I was just reading it, and I thought it was pretty interesting just with regard to at 11 p.m. where it says the, where I stepped in

to remind Mr. Brooks that that was not proper set etiquette. Now, Johnny Depp was sued as part of this. So was his production company and one of the other producers, Brad Furman. And Brad Furman was actually asked about all of this on Z.E. Leakers TV late last year. And he said the claim of an assault by Johnny Depp wasn't true.

My experience with Johnny is he's an absolute gem. He's a wonderful, wonderful human being. And, you know, he never punched anybody on set or anything like that. There's just a bunch of nonsense there. So with all of that, why did Johnny Depp settle with Rocky Brooks? Joining us to talk about this is entertainment attorney Mitra Ahorian. Mitra, welcome back to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on.

My pleasure. You know, this doesn't surprise me. And what's interesting is it went this far. We're only a few days away from trial. And so it's really a last-minute settlement, which a lot of times cases might even settle. I've settled cases right outside the courtroom on the day of trial. and that's not that unusual. I'm a bit surprised that he didn't settle this sooner,

but really I think because there were a lot of witnesses that said that this did not happen, that he didn't, you know, punch him in the ribs. The allegations are that he punched him twice in the ribs. The witnesses say that there was sort of this altercation, they got in one another's faces, but that Depp never laid hands on him. I think what really was the issue is that when he complained about it,

when Rocky, as we're calling him, complained about it, The studio tried to get him to sign a waiver saying that he's not going to pursue anything. And I think that was kind of sort of the breaking moment for Rocky. But I think maybe at this point, Johnny Depp is like, let's just clean the slate and let's just settle this and move on from all of it. Fine. You know, we'll pay you something. And of course, that's confidential. We don't know what.

But I think it's, do I want to sit in another trial after coming off of this massive trial of a lifetime? Yeah. And this was, I mean, let's face. facts. For this century so far, this was the trial of the century. At least, you know, we're only into 22, but, you know, Mitra, this was a big one. Millions and millions of people around the world watched this trial. But what strikes me is the fact that Johnny Depp, you know, the name of his artwork is never fear truth, right? So, and he talked about at trial how he is obsessed with the truth during the trial with Amber Heard. He said, I'm obsessed with the truth. And he insisted,

that he was telling the truth. So for him to pay anything in a settlement seems to kind of maybe go against what his nature might be or what he has claimed. But also at the same time, it's probably a lot cheaper to write a check for a settlement. And I'm assuming he wrote a check. I don't know that, but it's possible. You know, a lot cheaper than going through a three to five day trial and paying a bunch of additional legal fees. Yeah, we also have to remember that there are other parties involved that are potentially culpable like the production company or the studio and of course there's been claims against them as well. So this is a lot more complicated than just, you know, the location manager and Johnny Depp. Obviously Johnny Depp was the first person to go after if he was

allegedly the one that punched him. But like you said, it is against his nature. But, you know, a lot of us are fans of truth and justice and our justice system is not always, you know, doesn't always come out on top, so to speak, and sometimes settling cases, or oftentimes settling cases is probably the smarter choice, just in terms of time, energy, and resources, and I just cannot imagine that Johnny Depp wants to spend any more energy on a dispute like this. Also, he is on tour with Jeff Beck right now in Europe. They have been playing lots of concerts, and he's going to be filming a movie in France sometime this summer, I guess, at the end of end of the summer and he's going to be playing louis the 15th they're filming at versa

from what i read louis the 15th of course 15th of course is the predecessor to louis the 16th um so everybody's heard of him maybe not but louis the 15 he's also playing he's he's got another movie that he's going to be playing that is super amazing and exciting that has not been announced i can't tell you anything about it i'm just going to tell you something amazing's coming um and so yeah He should be focusing on those positive things and just kind of cleaning the slate, in my opinion. I can't say more. Maitra, you are holding out on me. I'm not liking this.

You know how much I love. I'll come back on when we can talk about it. Okay. Are you, is this just the word on the street in Hollywood that there's some big, amazing project coming? It's not a word on the street. It's inside scoop. Inside scoop. Okay.

So Mitra Ahorian, you heard it here first, people. Breaking Johnny Depp news, not only is he playing Louis the 15th, who you've never heard of, because you've only heard of Louis the 16th. He's playing Louis the 15th. And now there's some big, amazing project on the horizon for Johnny Depp, according to Mitra O'Hourian, the wonderful entertainment attorney and litigator. So Mitro, when you can talk about this, I want to hear all about it. You've got to come back on.

Thanks for coming on. All right. Okay. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. Michael Dininger and Sam Goldberg are our producers. Bobby Zoki manages our YouTube and Kiera Bronson manages our social media. And don't forget Alyssa Fisher, she is our booking producer. You can find this podcast, Law and Crime Sidebar, on Apple, Spotify, Google, and YouTube and wherever else you get your podcasts.

I'm Jeanette Levy and I'll see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.