Criminal Lawyer Reacts to Closing Arguments in the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard Trial

[Music] hi this is bruce rivers welcome to another fun-filled episode of criminal lawyer reacts i'm bruce rivers board certified criminal defense lawyer today we're reacting to the closing arguments on both sides in the depth versus herd case now i've been in trials that lasted a long time and six weeks is a long time to be in trial i mean it just is um you get to know everybody around you and you better start liking people because it could be a long six weeks but closing arguments you know are different than no opening statement opening statement all you can really do in an opening statement is say the evidence will show it's just kind of an introduction to what the case is about you can't uh argue your case in opening statement all you can really do in your opening statement is basically introduce the jury to the case now when it comes time for closing argument though this is where the rubber meets the road this is where you can uh you can win a case based on your closing argument and uh this is the time where you argue the case and there's so it's and you they only get so much time because the judge is timing this and you really have to be strategic and in this case they have so much to draw from so you have to be really strategic so let's get into it camille starts it out 2016. miss hurd walked into a courthouse in los angeles california to get a no notice ex-party restraining order against mr depp and in doing so ruined his life by falsely telling the world that she was the survivor of domestic abuse at the hands of mr deb so she's going right after her you know by falsely telling the world by getting a no notice you know what a no notice is uh it's an ex parte so in order to get the restraining order you all you have to do is allege that there's some kind of abuse judges will sign it as if it's a leave come blowing in the window today on may 27 2022 exactly six years later we ask you to give mr depp his life back by telling the world that mr depp is not the abuser ms heard said he is and hold ms heard accountable for her life now it's time for you the jury to come to a decision you have been entrusted with a serious task what is at stake in this trial is a man's good name even more than that what is at stake at this trial is a man's life now here's the thing when you were advocating for your client and i i've actually teared up in cro and uh closing arguments before uh one u.s attorney uh called me uh crimea river you know that's but here's the thing you first of all i guarantee camila and the whole team is very attached to johnny depp they believe in their cause they know what they're doing they and so it becomes emotional and it becomes you know a mission the life that he lost when he was accused of a heinous crime and the life he could live when he is finally vindicated exactly six years ago today on may 27 2016 miss herd walked into court and filed a false report of domestic abuse against her husband of 15 months johnny depp the scene was a setup she tipped off the paparazzi so they would be waiting they knew exactly where she would pause which side of her face to photograph and the photos captured what she wanted them to see the image of a battered woman what the paparazzi did not know is that the dark mark on her face mysteriously appeared six days after seen mr deb it was so you probably wouldn't have that bruising six days later and and that's critical and then all of a sudden you see the other photograph of her um i i just i really like camille's presence she uh she's to the point um she's not over the top but she's and she's kind of cold that's a lie she knew it mr depp knew it and the multiple witnesses you heard from who saw her that week of may 21 2016 also knew it when i say cold i i'm not i'm not saying that she's like uh off-putting or i mean when i say cold i mean she's she's like a laser she knows exactly what she's gonna say she knows how to say it and she's very prepared but the world only saw what she wanted them to see two years later when promoting the biggest role of her career until this trial ms hurd presented herself to the world as a public figure representing domestic abuse the headline of the op-ed featured the term sexual violence even though she had never before accused her ex-husband of such a heinous crime ms hurd and her lawyers love to remind you of how the op-ed did not mention mr depp by name but miss heard made sure that there would be no mistake about who she was referring to she inserted two years ago so the world would remember the photo of a battered woman the mark on her face standing outside the courthouse so that's that's an important point because you know it's not this isn't just about domestic violence or this or that it is about defamation and she has to get all the elements out and they would once again see mr depp as the villain this time in full swing of the metoo movement but what was happening behind closed doors was quite different from what ms heard presented to the world the exact opposite in fact there is a there is an abuser in this courtroom but it is not mr deb and there is a victim of domestic abuse in this courtroom but it is not misheard the evidence presented at this trial has shown that ms heard is in fact the abuser and mr deb the abused as you heard from mr depp and multiple other witnesses that testified under oath at this trial mr depp experienced persistent verbal physical and emotional abuse by misheard during their relationship you heard from mr depp about how often miss heard would berate him insult him and physically attack him so and there's actual uh recordings in video to back up what she's saying and to back up johnny depp's claims it is just remarkable that there isn't one single piece of audio or video that she has taken that corroborates the him abusing her including one of the most serious occasions when was heard through a vodka bottle at mr depp severely injuring his finger and then it put a cigarette out on his face you heard from mr depp that this whole incident in australia started because miss heard was enraged that mr depp wanted a post-nuptial agreement and she wasn't in his will just a month after getting married you also heard from tara roberts well that would piss any woman on a manager at mr duff's island who witnessed misheard telling mr deb that he was washed up and would die fat and lonely you also heard from miss roberts that she witnessed miss heard clawing and grabbing at mr depp grabbing his hair trying to pull him back to her and mr deb had a visible injury to his nose on that occasion most importantly all right i'm going to speak to the guys out there you know if you're with a woman that is toxic like this actually i i'm going to speak to everybody if you are with somebody that's that toxic that's pulling this kind of crap you need you need to just quietly leave them and sometimes it's easier said than done but you can't be constantly berated constantly told you're a piece of [ __ ] you can't be physically harmed i mean if if you love somebody you love them and it shouldn't be that hard to get along but sometimes people have personality problems and those people you just need to leave them in the dust you heard from this hurd yourselves on multiple audio recordings admitting to being physically violent with mr depp what you didn't hear on a single recording you heard in this case and there were many played by both parties is mr depp ever admitting to hitting punching or kicking miss you didn't hear it it doesn't exist it didn't happen and despite the fact that mr death and misheard are heard discussing many of the alleged incidents you've heard about at this trial like australia and the bahamas you never heard miss heard accuse mr depp of sexual assault unlike mr deb who you heard admit to and own up to his past mistakes and his struggles particularly with drugs and alcohol misheard will not admit that she has never done that she has ever done anything wrong but she cannot deny what you heard on those recordings that's an interesting point because you know nobody's perfect right and if you have a situation where you you don't admit anything that any bad fact against you no one's going to believe it and that's what she's kind of getting at here as much as miss heard and her lawyers have tried to make this case about mr death's language it is misheard that repeatedly admits to violence so let's talk about the giant lie at the heart of this case miss herd's claim that mr depp is an abusive monster and that she is a public figure representing domestic abuse she spun a story of shocking overwhelming brutal abuse she came into this courtroom prepared to give the performance of her life and she gave it misheard miss heard's acting coach christina sexton testified that miss hurd has difficulty crying when she is acting you saw it this is this is a great line i love this this heard sobbing without tears while spinning elaborate exaggerated fantastical accounts of abuse and everything my dog stepped on a bee we really did my dog stepped out of [ __ ] me when you're sitting there crying and not a single tear comes out you know that's a tell that is an absolute tell that she's acting on the stand and not very well i might add everything going on in her mind almost a decade prior while enduring that abuse it was a performance what we have is a mountain of unproven allegations that are wild over the top and implausible and you can't pick and choose which of these wild allegations to believe and which ones to disregard you either believe all of it or none of it either mr death sexually assaulted misheard with a bottle in australia or misheard god up on that stand in front of all of you and made up that horrific tale of abuse first of all that that tale that she tells is absolutely horrific and why why he wouldn't have been brought up on criminal charges that's assault in the first sexual assault in the first degree ridiculous and when when camille says um you either believe all of it or none of it there's a a latin phrase that they teach in law school it's called falso nuno falson omnibus which means if you're lying about one thing you're lying about everything so you can you can disregard somebody's entire testimony by one lie and that's kind of what she's talking about here either she's a victim of truly horrific abuse or she is a woman who is willing to say absolutely anything but this case doesn't come down to whether you believe miss heard or you believe mr depp this case comes down to whether you believe miss heard or you believe mr depp christie dombrowski sean bett malcolm connolly travis mcgivern sterling jenkins keenan wyatt dr kipper nurses debbie lloyd and aaron fellotti tara roberts ben king kate james kate moss dr colber morgan knight morgan tremaine officers melissa signs officers tyler hadden officer william gatlin and beverly leonard see what she did there that was masterful remember remember what she did during the uh cross-examination of amber heard during her rebuttal she lined up all those witnesses you know and that's exactly what she's doing here in the closing argument and they it just meshes it just fits so this isn't you know depth versus herd this is heard versus depp and then she lines them all up because all those witnesses corroborated johnny depp's version and discredited uh i mean they can't all be lying can they what ms heard testified to in this courtroom is the story of far too many women but the overwhelming evidence and weight of that evidence shows that it's not her story it's not miss heard's story when she talks about the overwhelming weight of the evidence in uh in civil cases so in a criminal case the proof is beyond a reasonable doubt it's the highest burden you know that's what i'm used to in a civil case it's just preponderance of the evidence so johnny depp only has to prove it's slightly more true than not true and if he does that he wins his defamation claim it was an act of profound cruelty not just to mr deb but to true survivors of domestic abuse for miss heard to hold herself out as a public figure representing domestic abuse it was false it was defamatory and it caused irreparable harm so here's the thing whether johnny depp wins this trial or not public sentiment seems to have shifted in his favor and to that end he wins even if he doesn't get a good verdict in this case and to talk more about that i'm going to turn it over to my colleague and my friend mr chu as ms vasquez said you have now come to know the real amber heard scary also told you at the start of this trial that you were going to come to know the real johnny depp not the many characters you've seen him play so wonderfully in the movies but the man himself we kept that promise you've met the real johnny depp before amber heard ladies and gentlemen no woman ever no woman ever before amber heard ever claimed that mr depp raised a hand to her in his 58 years and that's kind of an important fact because you don't just all of a sudden start being a dick you don't all of a sudden start just beating on somebody um it just i i've seen this happen with guys who who are wife beaters and you know that's what they are and they're very difficult people to represent to be quite honest with you because nothing's ever their fault um they're cheap and uh she's always to blame it's just ridiculous so i i like the point that he's making there and no other woman since miss heard made that false claim back on may 17 may 27 2016 has and repeated it in her december 2018 op-ed has any woman come forward since this is me too without any me too to the contrary ladies and gentlemen you heard kate moss two days ago testify this is a now if you remember that kate moss testimony that was completely unnecessary a completely unforced error by amber heard she created this image of of johnny depp running to her rescue and saving her the exact opposite and had she not testified about that kate moss wouldn't have been allowed to testify the woman who has never testified in any proceeding ever a very private person testified that mr depp never abused her and that miss heard lied to you and she lied to you twice beyond the personal and emotional effects of misheard's lies their impact on mr depp and his family the damage she inflicted on his reputation and career is undeniable there's an old saying that a good reputation takes a lifetime to build but only a second to destroy mr depp spent in fact a lifetime building his reputation as one of the greatest actors and movie stars of his generation an iconic figure respected through and liked throughout hollywood and recognized and admired throughout the world as you heard in this case amber heard is not a true victim and mr depp certainly is not an abuser again nobody has come out of the woodwork to say me too this is the unique and singular metoo case where there's not a single me too while mr depp's name will be forever tarnished by these horrendous and false allegations this case is about telling you his story and the truth about what really happened which you've now heard it is about restoring the other thing is and it gets a little drawn out but they have to go through damages and and if you look at the difference between johnny depp's damages and amber hurts damages i think what she did is she just looked at his number and doubled it i'm almost positive that's what she did 100 million and i don't think she proved any of her damages so let's take a look at uh the closing argument for or just the highlands some of the highlights of the closing argument for amber heard's team don't leave mr death and if you do he will start a campaign of global humiliation against you a smear campaign that lasts to this very day he will do everything he can now maybe it's because i am more pro-dep because i just kind of like their team better but i don't know this guy's voice bugs me to destroy your life to destroy your career that is what they are saying ladies and gentlemen and that's what they're trying to get you the jury to be an accomplice to but it's not surprising because mr death cannot and will not take responsibility for his own actions it's always someone else's fault does the first amendment that's interesting because it's exactly what i've said about amber hurt give ms heard the right to write the words that she wrote in this article on december 18 2018. so the first amendment's an interesting argument here because the first amendment really protects uh speech but not all speech you can't yell fire in a crowded theater that's um but it also it protects you against government action it doesn't protect you against private action so it's a little bit misplaced i think that's the question and you cannot simultaneously protect and uphold the first amendment and find in favor of johnny depp on this claim you simply cannot you have to decide should someone be able to write an article like that in the united states of america without being sued successfully without having to go through the hell that this heart has gone through think about every piece of evidence that you've heard over the last six weeks so his first amendment argument it is a is interesting because it it it's i mean that's what he comes out with he doesn't come out with the allegations are true i mean which is really the ultimate defense to this and which is what i would have come out out of the block i would i don't know why you would come out right away with the first amendment argument it seems weaker than she then you can't find for her because you can't fight for him because it's true about his abuse about their relationship none of that is in the article none of it we all know that it would be a very different article if she had written about what she suffered that she's told you about over the last six weeks because he knows the words are true mr depp says that the words now have a defamatory implication he says the statements are the same as saying johnny depp abused me but just because he wants to make the article about himself doesn't mean it is she said it was about him so he's contradicting the testimony of his own client he has to show you that any defamatory implication was designed and intended look at number four designed and intended by miss heard to convey the defamatory meaning that he suggests just so one of the things you do in a closing argument is you uh you know you can put up the elements and that's what they've done here is just put the elements of what needs to be proven because people might read the article and remember oh yeah amber heard used to be married to johnny depp and she accused him of abuse that doesn't mean that she designed and intended defamatory implications in writing about herself and think about it if mr depp is right then virtually any statement that anyone could ever make about their own life that implies anything implies any involvement with any other person could be defamatory and that's that that's not true i mean you can't these are highly highly highly visible people and the words matter clearly not what the first amendment intends she didn't design and intend the words to be the equivalent of writing johnny depp abused me and you don't have to take her words for it you can take the words of terrence doherty of the aclu he said that the op-ed wasn't even misheard's idea the aclu wrote the first draft and great care was taking taken in drafting the article so as not to make it about mr death or miss herd's relationship with him again he's contradicting his own client that's the only evidence presented about ms hurt's motive except her and her her statements that that was exactly what she wanted to do she wanted to talk about her experiences after johnny depp mr didn't write the headline she didn't approve the headline she had nothing to do with it she was not given notice of the headline she testified you saw her testify about the sexual assault that she experienced at the hands of mr death you saw her testify about that that they're calling her a liar you saw her on the stand testify with your own mouth with her own mouth exactly exactly what she went through for the first time in court because people who have suffered that they don't want to broadcast that to the world they want to penalize ms hurd for not speaking about that earlier that's ridiculous and it's insulting and it's just victim blaming at its most disgusting the only reference to sexual assault in the article and you can read the op-ed is sexual assault that she said she had experienced by the time she was of college age before mr depp so there is a reference to sexual violence in that article but it's not by mr deb the mr depp can't hold her liable for headlines she didn't write it contained something that had nothing that was not about him and they want you to think that she republished the headline republish the headline by tweeting out the link to the online version so let's look at this this is the tweet so this this gets a little drawn out but you sort of get the point i mean i i i if you the difference between the two sides is stark i think you can't give him anything they didn't tell you that but the court told you that and that's a very very important thing here he told his story he had his opportunities he had his full opportunities to do all of that and he came in here and lied to you and said he's here to get him the difference between mr rattenburn and elaine she's speaking with a lot more passion and um not super big fan of hers but uh she sounds more like a prosecutor it's just one of many lies in this case but it's a really big one because here we are six weeks of your time precious time six weeks of this court's time for what for nothing only to go after amber that's psychological abuse he's going after amber for nothing because he wants to put her through this again the third time so we're fighting back and that's the common thing she finally has said enough enough and we're asking you to finally hold this man responsible he has never accepted responsibility see that's that's actually the way she's going about it is is actually you know that man you know i think that's that's effective for anything in his life once again the next day johnny apologizes to amber he says in two different text messages that 772 and 773 he says my profound apologies in one of them and my apologies are eternal in the other one what is he apologizing for the next day on may 22nd if he didn't know that he did all those things she wasn't wearing any makeup she was natural she wasn't wearing a stitch of makeup every one of them says that it's the exact same thing why would you say that she's an actor she's not going to go outside her house you know without putting makeup on and if she has bruises why on earth when she's been covering them up for four years why on earth would she not put makeup on so that she would cover those up why on earth would she not want to cover up those bruises it makes no sense but you know what you guys saw her here so that is an interesting fact that she just brought up and lo and behold when tmz's there at the courthouse the only time they're real they're displayed she she's not wearing makeup um you saw amber on the stand there were days where she didn't wear eye makeup a lot of people think that she's not wearing makeup when she doesn't have mascara and eyeliner on she has different looks and some of them are with eye makeup and some of them are without and people misunderstand especially people that aren't that good at makeup and a lot of men frankly um go oh that's then she probably doesn't have makeup and that's where that mistake happens but you heard her testimony and you heard her makeup artist testimony saying she doesn't go out of her room without concealer and foundation she knows how to put these things in but somehow she's at the courthouse look at my bruise from her bruise kit and you decide defendants exhibit 155 and you'll have the actual thing in there that's the type of palette she used and she was very adapted telling you what color she puts on for her bruise kit for days of bruises this is a woman who for four years did everything she could to cover up anybody knowing anything about this abuse do you honestly think she's just going to walk around for the week with her bruises exposed of course she's not if you do the math amber is entitled at least 31.5 what does she take 31.5 well you asked for a hundred so now you're down to 31.5 7 million what does she do with the 7 million she gives it to charity or she intends to give it to charity now they make much ado about the pledge versus donation but both the corporate designees for aclu and for children's hospital said donation and pledge are interchangeable you know these are pledges the aclu corporate designee said so next week when it comes time to for payroll i'm just going to pledge to my my uh employees their payroll um yeah because we just pledge it it's the same thing as getting paid right you typically do pledges because of the tax benefits and that's what she said she pledged it over a period of time because of the tax implications to it but she hasn't paid [ __ ] i mean it i i wouldn't even bring this up because she she looks like oh it's just a losing argument end because she was getting paid over the time now she started to make these donations and you'll see that the first one was on behalf of mr depp's business manager mr white actually sent the letters with 100 000 for each of those that was the initial ones um he was trying to take credit for those and in fact both the aclu and children's hospital got confused and gave the credit to mr dappnock to amber for those then she made payments to both and elon musk also made payments to she made [ __ ] is everybody else paying both for 500 000 each which she didn't count to her pledge but they helped those organizations at the end of the day she's made a million dollars in pledge in payments to them but then she got sued here and hasn't been able to because she spent six million dollars in attorney's fees that is unrefuted she still intends to she just said she spent six million in attorney's fees six million pay those pledges honor those pledges and she said that throughout see the look on camille's face when she said six million and i elicited from both the aclu and from children's hospital they haven't expired she can pay them whenever she wants to and she fully intends to but she has to get out from under this first they started to get amber fired from aquaman too they have continued to this day they have followed her everywhere so i we don't need to watch any more of that um you know here's the thing the difference between caliber lawyers is just stark it really is stark the difference in approach to the case is stark um amber's not going to get squat she she's she'll be denied her counter claim i think johnny depp will win this case but i don't know for sure you know you never know what a jury is going to focus on you don't never know what they're going to hang their hat on i just had a case where the jury could not decide after three days of deliberation um and it's just it's a it's a it's a tough thing trying a case it really is but it's fun it's uh it's so rewarding and and you know at the end of the day uh when they got done and you know i guarantee you those lawyers know johnny that better than anybody else and it looks like they gelled as a team it looks like he gelled with it with his lawyers so uh now the jury's gonna deliberate and they've got a lot you know they sat for six or seven weeks in the trial and it'll be interesting to see what happens so uh we'll continue to follow it you guys follow us subscribe like comment i read the comments um and uh follow us 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Channel: CLR Bruce Rivers

Views: 781,874

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Id: sKVPJg5sYQc

Length: 34min 7sec (2047 seconds)

Published: Mon May 30 2022