Benjamin Chew

Summary

Jury selection before Judge Azcarate: hardship excusals, individual voir dire on pretrial publicity, and attorney questioning of the 21-person panel.

Summary

Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez outline Depp's theory that Heard fabricated abuse allegations to control him and advance her career, causing irreparable harm to his reputation.

Highlights (3)

Summary

Rottenborn and Bredehoft present Heard's opening, arguing the 2018 op-ed is First Amendment-protected policy advocacy, not defamation, and previewing evidence of Depp's abuse.

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Depp's sister and personal manager testifies about a childhood marked by their mother's abuse, her observations of the Depp-Heard relationship, and Heard's divorce filing timed to the day after their mother's death.

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Rottenborn uses 2013–2014 text messages to contradict Christi Dembrowski's denials, showing she knew of Depp's substance abuse and expressed concern to Heard in writing.

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Judge rules on admissibility of text message exhibits 163, 210, and 214, then addresses a sidebar report of a juror waving at Johnny Depp.

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Rottenborn uses Dr. Kipper's email and Christi's own texts to establish that concerns about Depp's substance abuse and on-set conduct came from sources beyond Amber Heard.

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Chew's brief redirect is largely blocked by sustained hearsay objections, leaving only Christi's personal observations about Heard's presentation style intact.

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Heard's counsel questions ex-personal assistant on Waldman contacts, absence of observed violence, and impeaches her with contradictory UK trial testimony about a Depp text.

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Chew's cross walks Anderson through her therapy notes, surfacing Heard's admissions of initiating physical violence and strategizing about filing a police report for legal advantage.

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Chew's single-question recross confirms Depp was absent when Heard described incidents of his violence in solo therapy sessions.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Judge Azcarate strikes Gina Deuters' testimony after she admits watching trial clips, then bars non-legal-team from front row following Eve Barlow's note-passing.

Summary

Meyers cross-examined Depp's addiction nurse through her contemporaneous nursing notes, documenting Depp-Heard relationship tensions throughout 2014–2015 treatment without evidence of witnessed physical violence.

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Depp's security guard testifies he photographed Depp's 2015 injuries, never observed injuries on Heard, and witnessed no violence by Depp against Heard including on May 21, 2016.

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Sound technician and longtime Depp friend Keenan Wyatt testified about Depp's professionalism, earpiece use, and a 2014 Boston flight incident involving Heard.

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Bredehoft challenged Wyatt on Depp's film contracts, Australia production delays, the 2014 Boston flight, and impeached his denial of knowing any prior violence allegations against Depp.

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Chew rehabilitates Wyatt on financial independence and elicits that Depp's Pirates 5 lateness stemmed from arguments with Heard, not substance abuse.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Depp describes escalating verbal and physical abuse by Heard, including the Australia finger injury, staircase punch, and career devastation from Heard's 2018 op-ed.

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Rottenborn impeached Depp with violent texts about Heard, drug-use admissions contradicting claimed sobriety, and inconsistencies in his Australia finger-injury account.

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On redirect, Meyers asked Depp to explain the Bettany texts, the term 'monster,' recordings of arguments, his finger injury, and the San Francisco knife incident.

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Pre-deposition sidebar resolves exhibit admissibility for Officer Saenz testimony; incident report admitted, injury photos excluded for lack of foundation.

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Depp's counsel establishes Hadden had clear views of Heard's face on two occasions and saw no injuries, swelling, or property damage on May 21, 2016.

Summary

ACLU COO confirms Heard paid $1.3M of a pledged $3.5M donation, and that ACLU staff drafted the 2018 Washington Post op-ed, timing its release to coincide with Aquaman.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Court handles expert attendance, witness address redaction, exhibit housekeeping, and rules on the scope of Richard Marks's op-ed impact testimony.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Depp's agent Whigham details his studio-film career and $22.5M Pirates 6 deal, testifying that Heard's op-ed led to zero studio work and Disney dropping Depp.

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Bredehoft challenged Whigham's Pirates 6 deal claim, extracted an admission of no written contract, and introduced pre-op-ed UK press to argue earlier causes for Depp's career decline.

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Chew rehabilitates Whigham on the undocumented Pirates 6 deal and clarifies Disney had not formally dropped Depp as of the December 2018 op-ed date.

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Plaintiff rests; defense moves to strike all three defamatory statements; judge denies as to statements 2 and 3 and takes statement 1 under advisement.

Highlights (2)

Summary

Defense expert Dr. Dawn Hughes testified that Heard's reported abuse is consistent with intimate partner violence and that she suffers from PTSD attributed to Depp's conduct.

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Heard walks the jury through April 2015–May 2016 alleged abuse, culminating in a detailed account of the May 21, 2016 penthouse phone-throwing incident, with photos and audio admitted.

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Judge rules at sidebar on Depp's motion to admit Heard's alleged prior violent conduct toward Tasya van Ree and Rocky Pennington for impeachment.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Judge sustains objection to Heard's photo metadata exhibits and rules Heard's team may continue de-designating deposition clips under the 61-hour time constraint.

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Court signed a juror order and ruled on admissibility of photo timestamps for Raquel Pennington's deposition, distinguishing iPhone display data from extracted metadata.

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Josh Drew, Raquel Pennington's ex-husband, testifies he never saw Depp strike Heard while describing visible injuries on Heard's face on May 22 and after December 15, 2015.

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Chew pressed Drew on an inconsistency: the dogs were too small to climb stairs, yet one could jump on the bed. Drew clarified one dog had both abilities, the other had neither.

Highlights (2)

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Judge reprimands Chew for violating her photography order near the courthouse, discloses a TikTok balcony incident involving courthouse staff's children, and limits Bercovici to rebuttal.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Chew draws denials from Jacobs that she ever witnessed Depp abuse a woman, then establishes Depp's continued commercial value via deal terms and a Bank of America loan document.

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Heard's counsel examines Depp's attorney Waldman about Daily Mail statements calling Heard's allegations a hoax, as Chew repeatedly invokes attorney-client privilege to block answers.

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Brief cross by Depp's counsel establishing Waldman as an independent attorney who owns Endeavor Law Firm and is not Depp's employee.

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Chew established that Depp lacked authority to fire Mulrooney; she testified that her representation of Heard ended within a few days of Depp's call.

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Heard's WME agent Kovacevic testified Aquaman failed to boost Heard's career as expected and that Waldman's statements caused tangible harm, including a lost Amazon film.

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Defense rests; judge denies Depp's motion to strike Heard's counterclaims; sidebar resolves disputes over six late-identified rebuttal witnesses before jury enters.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Warner Brothers president Walter Hamada testifies Heard was never released from her Aquaman 2 contract and that Depp's or Waldman's statements had no effect on her compensation.

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Recalled expert Doug Bania rebuts Schnell's Twitter analysis and Arnold's comparable-actor claims, concluding neither proved the Waldman statements caused economic harm to Heard.

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Bredehoft probes Night's Twitter posts about a Hicksville fire pit incident and his contacts with Depp's attorneys, testing for pretrial contamination before his rebuttal testimony.

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The court heard defense objections to Morgan Night as a rebuttal witness and ruled to allow his limited testimony, finding probative value outweighed any prejudice.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Defense counsel Nadelhaft proffers excluded testimony and exhibits from nine witnesses and the UK judgment for the appellate record, all barred on hearsay grounds.

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Sidebar rulings admit Beverly Leonard for limited impeachment, restrict Kate Moss to staircase testimony, and exclude Dr. Collins and Bryan Neumeister as rebuttal experts.

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Kate Moss testifies via WebEx from England, denying Depp ever pushed, kicked, or threw her down any stairs during their 1994–1998 relationship.

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Post-recess sidebar excludes Dr. Collins as rebuttal expert; Neumeister ruling deferred to noon; defense discloses Hughes and Heard as rebuttal witnesses; Depp recalled.

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The court limited Neumeister's rebuttal testimony to photographs in evidence and their EXIF metadata, denied use of the UK trial judgment, and rejected TMZ's intervention motion.

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Plaintiff rests rebuttal case; Heard's renewed motion to strike denied; jury sketch and jigsaw puzzle housekeeping; defense calls Julian Ackert.

Highlights (3)

Summary

After Heard rests her counterclaim case, the court finalizes contested jury instructions, approves the verdict form, and sets closing argument ground rules for the next morning.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Depp's attorneys Vasquez and Chew deliver closing argument on the sixth anniversary of Heard's TRO filing, replaying audio admissions and challenging the lack of corroborating injury evidence.

Highlights (1)

Summary

Bredehoft presents Heard's counterclaim closing, arguing Waldman's three statements were defamatory, the May 21 incident was not staged, and seeking career and emotional damages.

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The jury asked whether falsity Question 43 applied to the op-ed headline or the full article; Judge Azcarate clarified it refers to the headline only.

Summary

The jury unanimously finds for Depp on all three defamation claims ($10M compensatory, $5M punitive) and for Heard on one counterclaim ($2M); judge caps punitive at $350K.