Amber Heard’s lawyer stated “lopsided” social media chatter and posts concerning the Johnny Depp defamation trial “influenced” the decision and turned the courtroom right into a “zoo.”
Elaine Bredehoft’s spoke to NBC’s “TODAY” present Thursday, at some point after Depp gained his go well with in opposition to Heard, his ex-wife, in the high-profile case.
Bredehoft stated she believes jurors couldn’t escape the extraordinary social media frenzy surrounding the trial.
“How can you not? They went home every night. They have families. The families are on social media. We had a 10-day break in the middle because of the judicial conference. There’s no way they couldn’t have been influenced by it,” she stated.
She known as the social media protection “horrible.” During the six-week trial, posts on TikTok and Twitter overwhelmingly appeared to favor Depp.
“It’s like the Roman Colosseum, you know? How they viewed this whole case. I was against cameras in the courtroom and I went on record with that and argued against it because of the sensitive nature of this. But it made it a zoo,” Bredehoft stated.
She described the primary phrases Heard stated to her after the bombshell jury determination was introduced.
“One of the first things she said is, ‘I am so sorry to all those women out there. This is a setback for all women in and outside the courtroom,'” Bredehoft stated. “She feels the burden of that.”
Bredehoft stated the decision sends “a horrible message.”
“Unless you pull out your phone and you video your spouse or your significant other beating you, effectively you won’t be believed,” she added.
Depp, who was not in courtroom Wednesday as a result of a beforehand scheduled work dedication, sued for $50 million in damages over a 2018 op-ed essay by Heard in The Washington Post, in which she stated she had turn into a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
Although the essay by no means talked about Depp by title, his attorneys stated it not directly referred to allegations she made in opposition to him throughout their 2016 divorce.
The jury awarded Depp $15 million in damages — $10 million in compensatory and $5 million in punitive damages.
Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate diminished the punitive damages the jury awarded to Depp to $350,000, which is the state’s statutory cap or authorized restrict, making his complete damages $10.4 million.
When requested if Heard is ready to pay the $10.4 million judgment, Bredehoft replied, “Oh no, absolutely not.”
She stated Heard “absolutely” intends to attraction.
“She has some excellent grounds for it,” Bredehoft stated, noting that “there was so much evidence that did not come in” associated to Depp’s misplaced libel case in the United Kingdom two years in the past over allegations that he hit Heard.
She defined that Heard’s medical information had been suppressed, which she stated had been “very significant” as a result of they confirmed “a pattern going all the way back to 2012 of Amber reporting this to her therapist.”
Heard countersued Depp for $100 million. The countersuit centered round three statements made by Depp’s former lawyer Adam Waldman in 2020 to the Daily Mail, in which he described Heard’s allegations of abuse as a “hoax.”
The jury discovered that Depp, by means of Waldman, defamed Heard on one rely. The jury awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages however zero greenback in punitive damages.
Bredehoft stated the case was “a tale of two trials.”
“Johnny Depp brought a suit in the U.K. for the same case and the burden of proof was easier for him there,” she stated. “The court found there — and we weren’t allowed to tell the jury this — that Mr. Depp had committed at least 12 acts of domestic violence, including sexual violence, against Amber. So what did Depp’s team learn from this? Demonize Amber and suppress the evidence,” she stated.
“We had an enormous amount of evidence that was suppressed in this case that was in the U.K. case. And in the U.K. case, when it came in, Amber won. Mr. Depp lost,” Bredehoft continued.
In a press release Wednesday after the jury’s determination got here by means of, Depp stated: “The jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”
Heard stated her disappointment was “beyond words.”
“I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband,” she said.