good morning judy can you hear everything okay today okay good all right good morning all right do we have any preliminary matters before the jury comes out um all right there's no objection to that people change places here i just wanna make sure to look at the right place okay okay i'm assuming it's we tried it out if it's a blank screen it's hard to see if it's working or not it is published but it's just a blank screen i guess okay we're going to hope that's that's it then all right thank you anything other
else we have all right ready for the jury okay great so you can sit down right good morning ladies and gentlemen if i can have you move your water down by your chair does not have anything there if we get electronic so we mess up electronics i get in trouble so thank you uh i hope you like the seat you're in i'd like to stay in that seat for the duration i'd appreciate it i hope you had a good evening all right thank you and thank you for being punctual today i appreciate it have a
seat all right are we ready with opening statements yes all right go ahead sir good morning my name is ben chu my colleagues and i from brown rudnick are truly honored to represent the plaintiff in this case johnny depp some of you may recognize mr depp from seeing him portray characters such as edward scissorhands or captain jack sparrow from the pirates of the caribbean movies for nearly 30 years mr depp built a reputation as one of the most talented actors in hollywood a respected artist whose name was associated with success at the box office today
his name is associated with a lie a false statement uttered by his former wife the defendant amber heard that falsely cast mr death falsely unfairly characterized cast mr depp as a villain a man who would violently abuse a woman this is a defamation case it's a case about how devastating words can be when they are false and uttered publicly under the law a person who makes a false statement about someone else can be held responsible for the harm that results from that falsehood that's because words matter they paint a picture in our mind based on
what we have experienced and what we know or what we think we know and because of that words can evoke strong emotions in the listener and cause irreparable harm to a person's reputation and when like mr depp your career depends upon your image and your reputation or whether movie producers want their films associated with you that harm can be particularly devastating this is a case about the impact of amber heard's words on johnny depp specifically the words that she used in an op-ed published in the washington post in december 2018 which is shown on the
screens and the op-ed was published and this is no accident the evidence will show on the eve of her first major acting role in the movie aquaman the evidence will show that's no coincidence the evidence will show the words that misheard used which are the subject of mr dep's defamation suit against her and there are three statements that we respectfully ask each of you to focus on statement number one quote i spoke up against sexual violence and faced our culture's wrath statement number two two years ago i became a public figure representing domestic abuse and
i want to repeat that because you're going to hear that throughout the case because the timing here is critical two years ago i became a public figure representing domestic abuse statement number three quote i had the rare vantage point of seeing in real time how institutions protect men accused of abuse unquote ms heard did not use mr depp's name in the op-ed she didn't have to she didn't have to because the evidence will show that everyone in hollywood where mr depp and miss heard both have their careers and many others outside hollywood knew exactly what
she was talking about when she used the word two years ago i became a public figure representing domestic abuse that's because as the evidence will show and you will hear two years earlier on may 27 2016 ms heard had publicly accused johnny depp her husband at the time of domestic abuse you will learn during the trial that miss heard's actions were prompted by mr depp's request for a divorce he wanted out which drove her to concoct to make up a story that was at first designed to keep him and then when he made it clear
that finally after all he had endured he was done was designed to recast herself as an abuse survivor with mr depp as the alleged abuser the evidence will show that six days after mr depp requested a divorce and he did so politely and three days after ms heard's lawyer threatened mr depp with claims of abuse if he did not agree to her financial demands ms hurd arrived at the courthouse in los angeles california to file for a restraining order alleging abuse ms heard the evidence will show that ms heard showed up with a mark on
her face that mysteriously appeared six days after she last saw mr depp and and six days before she publicly filed a request for a domestic violence restraining order alleging abuse the evidence will show that her publicist and the paparazzi were there at the courthouse to document the event to make sure that johnny depp's name was forever associated with the image of an innocent battered woman it was a jolt it was a shocking story splashed across front pages across the country no one had ever in five decades accused johnny depp of being violent with a woman
no one had ever accused mr depp of being violent with a woman he had been in other long-term relationships he had children no one as i stated before no one had ever in five decades no one had ever accused johnny depp of being abusive of any kind with a woman that's why it was such a jolt he had been in other long-term relationships as i said he had two children and no one had even suggested ever that he was capable of something like this by choosing to lie about her husband for her own personal benefit
amber heard forever changed mr depp's life and reputation and you will hear him tell you the dreadful impact that it has had on his life the evidence you will hear at this trial contradicts the story ms heard presented to the world in may 2016 and again in december 2018 the evidence will show that the last time mr depp and ms hurd saw each other before miss heard showed up in court on may 27 2016 was may 21st and that's a very important date and i will ask you please to remember that through the trial mr
depp's mother betty sue passed away on may 20th after a long illness when johnny and his sister christy had been taking care of of his mother for a very long period of time and for reasons that mr depp will personally explain to you throughout the course of this trial he had resolved to divorce ms hurt so on may 21st mr depp came by the apartment that he shared with miss heard in the eastern columbia building or the ecb as some people referred to it to tell her that to pick up his things and to say
goodbye there is no dispute that soon after mr depp ended things with miss heard and left the apartment on may 21st he got on a plane to head out on a european tour a music tour for months with his band the hollywood vampires and miss heard knew that he was going off on tour and out of state when she walked into court to get the restraining order which she obtained ex parte it's a latin word fancy word but all it means is that mr depp and his lawyer were not there and had no opportunity to
be heard that's what an ex parte order is you will hear from the police officers who responded to a 911 after mr depp left the police officers will testify that they saw no injuries on this hurt both police officers will testify that they saw no injuries on misheard nor did the police officers see any of the property damages that you will hear misheard claims existed in the apartments that evening and you will hear those officers under oath testify that there was no violence and there was no crime you will also hear from multiple witnesses who
like the police officers saw miss heard between may 21 and may 26th those are the crucial days between the alleged incident and the day she walked into court with her lawyer and got an ex parte order and those witnesses will testify that they saw her without any marks any signs of injury on her face and you will hear from multiple witnesses including brandon patterson who is the manager of the eastern columbia building where mr depp and ms heard live together you will hear mr patterson say that they that he saw and others will say as
well that they saw a surveillance video from the week of may 21st that showed miss heard's sister whitney throw a fake punch at miss hurd's face let's just stop there this is a surveillance video video you will hear about where the sister of the alleged victim threw a fake punch at her sister allegedly which allegedly occurred this incident only a couple of days earlier misheard acting out being punched responding to the fake punch and the two laughing about it so you have the alleged victim and the sister laughing about a fake punch and you will
have to decide for yourself or we ask that you please decide for yourself would anyone ever joke about that if there had been actual abuse much less ask yourself would a sister ever joke with an alleged victim about being punched by her husband of course none of this contradicting evidence was publicly available when ms heard walked into court on may 27 and got her restraining order instead as you can imagine the media storm was instantaneous you will hear about and see some of that media coverage which published pictures of miss heard walking into court and
other pictures supposedly showing injuries supposedly caused by mr depp a man who had never been accused of abuse of a woman the evidence will show that mr depp and miss heard eventually settled their divorce out of court thereafter miss heard dismissed her restraining order against mr depp but miss heard's false claim that mr depp had abused her remained in the public sphere it didn't go away the images were permanent and the evidence will show that two years later which is why we're pointing to that that reference in the op-ed in the wake of the metoo
movement and just before the release of ms heard's role in the movie aquaman miss heard chose to remind the world about the festering allegations this time under the banner of a national international newspaper the washington post in the op-ed in her op-ed ms heard again painted herself as the innocent victim of abuse but this time this time with a wider audience primed to take action against in in industry powerhouses accused of abuse the evidence will show that the clear implication in ms heard's op-ed that you have in front of you was that she was the
victim of domestic abuse perpetrated by mr depp the evidence will show that that was a lie and it remains a lie when it was repeated and republished two years later hollywood studios don't want to deal with the public backlash from hiring someone accused of abuse even someone with the incredible body of work and record that mr depp can be proud of a false allegation can devastate a career and it can devastate a family and the evidence will show that ms heard's false allegations had a significant impact on mr duff's family and his ability to work
in the profession he loved and loved to bring joy to everyone ultimately this trial is about clearing mr depp's name of a terrible and false allegation we ask you in the next several weeks to please please carefully consider the evidence assess the reliability and credibility of that evidence and to make your own determination about what actually happened between mr depp and miss herb and to tell you more about that i am going to turn it over to my colleague camille vasquez who you had the pleasure of meeting yesterday thank you all for your for your
attention miss vasquez
