Nothing about the trial – which is based on allegations of domestic violence – was routine. Depp commented on the booth for four days about his rich drug-addicted lifestyle, portraying himself as a victim, although a British judge had already concluded that there was “overwhelming evidence” that he abused Amber Heard and left her scared for her life. He has also repeatedly behaved strangely in court, ranging from painting in Impressionist art performances to stings to sticky bears to laughter. And Depp fans have taken to TikTok and Twitter to create harsh Heard memes that react to painful testimonies. But if many eyes are on Depp and Herd, the supporting characters in a trial circus have threatened to steal the show for themselves. From a building manager steaming and driving while filming the video to a pastry specialist, witnesses presented by the actor’s legal team helped turn the case into an absurd drama. Depp’s legal team did not respond to a request for comment. The jury is set to determine whether Herd acted with “real malice” when she wrote a 2018 Washington Post article – meaning the actress knew what she wrote was false – or that she posted the piece with “reckless contempt” for the truth. . In the piece, which does not mention Depp’s name, Herd acknowledged that she had been made public as a survivor of domestic violence two years earlier. In May 2016, Herd filed for divorce and received a temporary restraining order against Depp after appearing in court with a bruised face. In her application, Herd claimed that Depp threw her a phone, which she denied. The point of Depp’s argument is that he never abused Herd, but she actually called him abusive, sabotaging his career. The issues are dark, and the bar to prove his case is high – the stakes at tens of millions of dollars. Some of Depp’s witnesses may eventually prove to be fulfilling the task before them: to restate him as a victim. But just as Depp’s bizarre antics could ultimately boomerang, his pile of colorful witnesses can let jurors scratch their heads.

Alexander Romero

Romero, a janitor at the Los Angeles apartment building that once housed Depp and Herd, made it clear from the moment his recorded testimony began that he had better things to do. In a January 2021 video recorded in court on Wednesday, Romero could be seen in a car talking about his limited interactions with the famous couple. “I know you sent me the papers to look at and I will be honest, I did not want to look at them because it has been so long,” Romero said at the beginning of his testimony. Romero continued to comment on how he was “so stressed” by the case and did not “want to deal with it anymore”. Winning laughter from the courtroom – and Depp himself – with the recorded testimony, Romero was seen circulating and steaming at some point while insisting to the lawyers of both celebrities that he never saw signs of abusive behavior or signs of facial injuries. of Herd. But the way the testimony was delivered was so unusual that even Judge Penney Azcarate had to comment, joking after the video: “That was the first.” “I have seen many things, but I just have not seen them before,” the judge added, prompting one of Herd’s lawyers to agree, “This is the strangest testimony.” Christopher Melcher, a celebrity divorce lawyer representing Kanye West in his divorce proceedings with Kim Kardashian, thought Romero’s testimony provided a “human moment” in an already “out of the world” case. “Trial is a theater and it’s a great script for the jury and the judge,” Melzer told The Daily Beast. “The jurors in this case probably already feel that they can not relate to some of the issues in the lives of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard – but I bet they are related to the director of the reception who would probably not one day take leave for this video submission. “ “This is a working guy who does not want to be involved in this case and he was honest about it,” added the lawyer, who has nothing to do with the parties to the case.

Christian Carino

A CAA agent and Lady Gaga’s former fiancé Christian Carino provided jurors with a unique picture of Depp and Heard’s professional and personal lives – including how the actress dated billionaire Elon Musk after her divorce. with Depp. In a two-part recorded recording, the former agent of both Depp and Herd said he never heard any of the celebrities accuse the other of abuse. However, he said he suggested the couple seek out a marriage counselor to “mediate the difficulties” they faced during their troubled, short-lived union. After they divorced, Carino added, he spoke to Heard about Tesla’s boss, texting her at one point: “You were not in love with him and you told me a thousand times that you were just filling space.” Carino also appeared to support Depp’s claim that his reputation was damaged as a result of Heard’s allegations, referring to the actor losing his role in Pirates of the Caribbean 6 shortly after the 2018 op-ed. (Carino claimed that he had conversations with Disney executives about the matter.) The agent said that while he met Heard through Depp and testified about Depp, he was no longer friends with any of the celebrities. “My opinion is that Amber’s accusations would have the most dramatic impact on his off-screen reputation. “I’m not talking about a specific category,” said Carino. But the pre-recorded video recording was at least partially overshadowed by Carino’s decision to sit in a fully mirrored room and drink a variety of beverages during the recording. At one point, he appeared to be drinking a beer or a hard kombucha – and was seen putting his face in his hands. In a second testimony, Carino appeared in front of a large print of a cartoon woman, leaning towards the camera seemingly annoyed. Melcher noted that unlike Romero, whose behavior during the filing process could be attractive, Carino’s behavior may have been considered pretentious. “He was in this strange background and he was clearly annoyed and did not want to be there. “He drank a lot,” said the lawyer. “He was very contemptuous.”

Gina Dutters

The wife of Depp’s personal assistant, Deuters, was to be an important witness for the actor – until she was expelled from the trial on April 14, shortly after taking a stand. As she began discussing her friendship with Depp, including how she never saw the actor act violently after using drugs or alcohol, Deuters quickly stopped when a sidebar was requested by the actress’s legal team. “Did you attend the trial last week?” Judge Azcarate asked Deuters after meeting with both lawyers. “I’ve seen excerpts of him on the internet, yes,” she replied. The confession prompted Deuters to drop out of the trial and have her testimony removed from the files, as witnesses are generally not expected to receive media coverage of the proceedings. But the jurors were not in the courtroom the moment they saw her being thrown, so they do not know why Deuters suddenly walked away from the witness stand. Melcher suggested that a quick exit would be impossible to forget. While Melcher believes the judge “acted very quickly” in ousting Deuters without asking for details of what he had seen in the coverage of the trial, he is certainly “an emerging factor for the jury”. “You can not just erase something from your memory. “It happened very quickly, so jurors do not know why he was expelled, which may raise some mystery or doubt.”

Dr. Shannon Curry

A clinical and forensic psychologist testifying on behalf of Johnny Depp, Carrie was shocked when she told jurors on Tuesday that she believed Amber Heard had a borderline personality disorder. But Dr. Shannon Curry, who has worked in the field for about 15 years and focuses on couples therapy – and was never Heard’s doctor – completely blew up the internet when she criticized the actress’s lawyers for asking her about pastries. “Can I clarify what happened to stop talking about muffins?” Carrie said during the cross-examination. The outburst came as Herd’s lawyer was looking for a doctor as to whether she had told her husband that she was evaluating Herd psychologically as part of her job as an expert on Depp last December. Attorney Eliane Bredehoft went on to say that Curry was “so excited” to be involved in the case – so much so that she told her husband that she was going to evaluate Heard, even though the case was supposed to be “highly confidential”. Curry grabbed Bredehoft because it was not accurate in its claim. Insert the muffins. “You said you brought muffins from your husband and gave them to Mrs. Herd, right?” asked the actress’s lawyer. The question prompted Curry to insist on stopping talking about food before starting an explanation of how her husband knew she was the only one working with a celebrity client – but not with whom. The psychologist added that because she was late in this case, she asked her husband “to go to the bakery near our house and pick up my muffins; he often has to do it because I am often late.” “I think I made a comment to her like ‘My husband got this for us today’, which means he bought the muffins we’re enjoying now because of him,” Curry added when she met Heard. “Why did your husband get the muffins for Amber Heard?” Bredehoft later asked Curry, with the result that he smiled and insisted that he did not (knowingly) …