Halfway through,Johnny Depp’s televised defamation trial against ex-wifeAmber Heardappears to be “spiraling” into a public relations battle, one legal expert says.
“There’s been a lot of dirty laundry aired in public. Clearly Johnny feels like he has very little left to lose and he has no problem publishing to the world at large, frankly, his innermost secrets — and those of Ms. Heard,” Daniel Gutenplan, an entertainment litigator, defamation expert and partner at Enenstein Pham & Glass, tells PEOPLE.
“As Mr. Depp’s counsel correctly predicted in their opening statements last month, Ms. Heard did indeed deliver ‘the performance of her life’ in her direct examination,” the statement read. “While Ms. Heard’s stories have continued to grow new and convenient details, Mr. Depp’s recollections have remained exactly the same throughout the six painful years since her first allegations were made. His truth — the truth — is the same no matter the environment in which it is has been presented. The upcoming cross examination from Mr. Depp’s team will be most telling, and will certainly highlight the many fallacies Ms. Heard has now attempted to pass off as fact throughout her convoluted testimony.”
Shortly after, a spokesperson for Heard, 36, responded criticizing Depp’s “panicked” legal team and their approach so far.
Amber Heard; Johnny Depp.JIM LO SCALZO/POOL/AFP/Getty
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“If Mr. Depp was truly innocent, why has he repeatedly apologized to Ms. Heard and promised to put the ‘monster away for good’? One of Ms. Heard’s disappointments is Mr. Depp’s inability to distinguish fact from fiction — a malady which appears to have spread to his legal team,” the statement continued. “That same team is so panicked they are fighting tooth and nail to prevent compelling evidence and photos from being introduced. Small wonder Mr. Depp does not have the fortitude or courage to even look at Ms. Heard at all throughout the proceedings — as he could not in the U.K. trial — andinstead he doodles and snickers.”
“Mr. Depp’s behavior in this trial has been as pitiful as it was in their marriage. Apparently, they feel they must double-down on their demonstrably losing two-part strategy: distract the jury and demonize the victim.”
About the competing mid-trial statements, Gutenplan says that “both camps are trying to control the narrative as best as they can.”
MICHAEL REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP/Getty
“Everything that’s happening here, in this case, is a bit unique and a bit unusual. … Some of the things that are being reported and a lot of the things that Johnny has acknowledged are fairly wild things. So this is spiraling, so to speak. Not out of control, but it is spiraling,” says Gutenplan.
ELIZABETH FRANTZ/POOL/AFP via Getty
“Johnny is the plaintiff, so he needs to prove that there was no abuse whatsoever. [Heard] certainly does not need to prove that every single incident and all of this happened. She just needs to establish, in theory, that she was abused,” says Gutenplan.
The attorney adds, “Now, there, of course, is a question when you’re dealing with a jury, if they believe she’s misrepresenting a particular item or lying about a particular item, how far does that belief go? Meaning, if they lose trust in her, faith in her, in one respect, how far will that spread? Will they completely devalue her entire testimony? I can’t tell you the answer to that. Only the jury can answer that.”
source: people.com
