Johnny Depp Trial, How It Was Decided to Broadcast Live from Inside the Courtroom

Last Updated on 09/28/2022 by てんしょく飯

One of the reasons that the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in Fairfax, Virginia, attracted so much attention was that cameras were inside the courtroom and broadcast live from beginning to end. Unlike Depp’s trial in England against the tabloids, people were able to see all the evidence and testimony with their own eyes. What kind of expressions would they make and how would they respond when the other side’s lawyers poked at their inconvenience? It was extremely valuable to be able to see that.

This time it’s a trial about defamation.

It is extremely unusual for a trial in which a celebrity’s private life is exposed to be broadcast live. This live broadcast was made possible by Judge Penny Azcarate’s acceptance of the media’s request, and it has been heard for some time that Hurd did not want to do so. However, after the verdict was officially recorded, there was a more detailed spelling out of the situation in the trial preparation record documents, which were unsealed.

According to that document, on February 25, a few weeks before the trial was to begin, Judge Azcarate held a virtual hearing with Depp’s attorney, Ben Chu, and Heard’s attorney, Irene Bredehoeft, to discuss the case. Judge Azcarate wanted to hear from each of them, and Bredehoeft spoke first.

Bredehoeft first tried to dissuade, bringing up one of Virginia’s specific provisions, saying, “As it says here, media and photography are forbidden in divorce cases.” But that is not the case,” he says, “This trial is about defamation. So it doesn’t apply,” and Judge Azcarate simply denied it.

In response, Bredehoeft said, “Oh, I understand that. But I have given this matter a great deal of thought, and I would like you to hear it,” he said, and then came up with another stipulation that he could not report on victims of sexual violence.

He said, “There’s a mixture of testimony that [Depp] has been violated, that he’s been sexually assaulted or raped. There is a tremendous amount of evidence. Photos, videos, audio recordings, text messages, emails. We welcome this trial, but that is not the issue. Amber Heard, a victim of sexual violence, is prohibited by rule 19.2-226 from talking about being raped or sexually assaulted, let alone being slapped,” Bredehoeft said.

To which Judge Azcarate replied, “I understand that you have read the law. But I don’t read it that way,” he replied. He said that those provisions are for criminal offenses and do not apply to civil cases, such as this one.

In a civil case, the decision is left to the court. That’s why I told you about the possibility of putting cameras in. （We have received a lot of requests (from the media), and I can’t think of any reason not to do it,” said Judge Azcarate, who said he has received requests from major networks ABC and the BBC in the UK, as well as from people who want to tweet from inside the courtroom. With so many people wanting to watch the trial, she thought it would be safer for them to watch it live than for them to come barging into the courtroom.

‘Based on that, I am going to allow the representative cameras in. However, I want to set the rules, and I will make that decision now. If there are any rules you want on your part, please let me know in the next two weeks,” Judge Azcarate said, issuing her decision here. ‘We will make sure that the rules are strictly enforced. Miz Bredehoeft, I promise you that. You know how I will conduct the trial. I will make sure you are well prepared before the trial begins. Mr. Chu, is that clear?” He also asked Depp’s lawyer at the end, but there is no record beyond that.

Bredehoeft on UK trial: ‘We won’

In this hearing, Bredehoeft says some things that are very much like her. For example, she said earlier, “There will be a lot of evidence in this trial. But in fact, the evidence offered to accompany Heard’s testimony that Depp poked her with a bottle while she was in Australia and that she wistfully hoped that “at least it wasn’t a broken bottle,” was a photograph of the room where the alleged act took place and a photograph of bottles of liquor laid out in another room. It is too much to connect those two photographs to Depp’s use of those bottles to commit the sexual assault.

Bredehoeft also brings up the British trial. In arguing that she has no objection to transparency in the trial itself, she says, “The media will report on this trial anyway. Besides, we already won the UK trial. The British court found that (Depp) committed domestic violence and sexual violence against Ms. Heard. We welcome a fair trial,” he said. But the British trial was against the tabloids, and they won. Hurd was only one of the witnesses, and Bredehoeft was a mosquito in that trial.

Bredehoeft, who said he “welcomed a fair trial,” produced from his opening statement a cosmetic, which was not on the market at the time, and used it to lie that Hurd was hiding the bruises from the domestic violence he had received from Depp. And when the jurors gave them an undesirable verdict, he accused them of having an impersonator on the jury and asked for a redo of the trial.

Bredehoeft was recently removed from the team of lawyers for the appeal. She was the leader of Heard’s legal team, and in her place came two lawyers who specialize in free speech. In announcing the news, a Heard spokesperson issued a statement saying, “There will be a lot of new evidence in the appeal by the new team of lawyers. However, according to experts, they cannot come up with new evidence for the appeal, and the only evidence that can be used is the evidence that has already been admitted. How will this new team fight the next stage?