Amber Heard’s lawyer interrupted by Amber Alert in court
Amber Heard’s lawyer was interrupted by an apparent Amber Alert as he made closing arguments during the blockbuster defamation trial between the actress and her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.
Attorney Ben Rottenborn was summing up his client’s case Friday morning when several cellphones began sounding the alert, causing a commotion in the courtroom.
As the loud siren sounds blared from phones, Heard turned to look back across the gallery with a confused look on her face.
“There appears to be an Amber Alert,” Judge Penney Azcarate told the court. “People are getting it on their phones that haven’t silenced them.”
It was later determined that the sound was not an Amber Alert — which is intended to notify people of a missing or abducted child — but rather a storm warning for the surrounding area of Fairfax, Virginia.
Regardless, many on social media were amused by the apparent Amber Alert, with some Depp fans cracking jokes.
“How did the entire courtroom not crack up? That was too perfect,” one pundit posted on Twitter.
“The fact an ‘AMBER Alert’ kept going off, interrupting during Rottenborn closing statement is somehow poetic justice. The best director in Hollywood can’t write this s–t,” another chimed in.
“#AMBERALERT on Amber Heard’s closing testimony. I cannot stop laughing. Jury, if you’re looking for a sign, there it is,” a third person tweeted.
It was the latest viral moment in the captivating court case, much of which has played out on social media, where pundits have been sharing TikToks, tweets and memes mocking both Depp and Heard.
In his closing arguments, Rottenborn vigorously defended Heard, saying she had been truthful about the abuse she said she had suffered at Depp’s hands.
Rottenborn referenced vulgar texts purportedly written by Depp, one of which read: “Hopefully that c–t’s rotting corpse is decomposing in the f–king trunk of a Honda Civic.”
In another, he allegedly fantasized about having sex with Heard’s “burnt corpse” to make sure she was dead.
“Ladies and gentlemen, these words are a window into the heart and mind of America’s favorite pirate,” the lawyer declared.
He added: “If Amber was abused by Mr. Depp even one time, then she wins. And we’re not just talking about physical abuse,” he said. It also included “emotional abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse.”
Meanwhile, Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez slammed Heard in her own closing arguments, telling jurors that the actress put on a “performance” during the six-week trial.
Vasquez claims the jury saw Heard “sobbing without tears while spinning elaborate, exaggerated, fantastical” claims of domestic abuse.
The attorney argued that the evidence presented by Heard’s legal team “does not bear out” that the actress had been abused “countless times,” including the fact that there are no medical records documenting her supposed injuries.
“There is nothing,” Vasquez said.
Depp is suing Heard for defamation over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed that the “Aquaman” star wrote, in which she said she was a victim of sexual violence. She did not specifically name Depp in the article, but it was written after Heard filed for a restraining order against her ex-husband in 2016 over abuse allegations.
Depp is seeking $50 million in damages. Heard has filed a $100 million countersuit.
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