Depp vs. Heard ongoing trial; Social media buzzing about court case

 It has been buzzing about social media, the court case of TV star Johnny Depp and his ex wife Amber Heard when she filed charges against him counter suing for 100 million dollars and accusing him of domestic abuse during their marriage.

     “The couple had split back in 2016 but have continued to battle in court,” according to nbcnews.org due to an op-ed piece that Heard wrote in The Washington Post in 2018, describing how she is a survivor of domestic abuse.

     Depp filed a lawsuit against Heard for 50 million dollars in damages and claimed he had never been violent towards her.

     “The trial, which is being held in Fairfax County, Virginia, is expected to take weeks,” according to nbcnews.org. The trial started on Apr. 11 and is currently still ongoing as of May 3. 

     On Apr. 19, Depp took the stand and he testified over the course of four days and while he was on the stand he claimed that Heard “would instigate arguments and escalate their feuds,” according to nbcnews.com.

     The final witness that Depp and his team called up to the stand was forensic accountant Mike Spindler. “He [testified] about his analysis of the earnings Depp lost as a result of the 2018 op-ed, which did not mention the actor by name,” according to cnn.com. Spindlers quote was “I concluded that Mr. Depp suffered lost earnings of approximately $40 million.”

     After 13 days of testimony, Depp’s attorneys rested their case and Heards team had started presenting their side of the case.

     In the beginning of May, Heard had fired her crisis public relations firm precision strategies and she has been “frustrated,” by all the negative publicity on social media following the testimony.

     On May 3, Heard attempted to strike and toss out the case but this motion was rejected by the judge. “[Judge] Penny Azcarate said that sufficient evidence had been presented by Depp’s lawyers to keep the case ongoing,” according to deadline.com.

     On May 5, the court adjourned because “Judge Penney Azcarate had a conference she needed to attend,” according to nypost.com and the trial will resume on May 16, 2022. 

     Junior Hannah Olschewske has an opinion on this current ongoing case. “I think realistically people are trying to say that they know what’s going on,” she says but Depp and Heard are the only two who truly know what has happened.

     “It seems like Amber Heard is trying to make people feel bad for her,” Olschewske also says. She also believes that Heard is not investing herself in the case the way she should be.