Hollywood Star Johnny Depp To Testify In Defamation Lawsuit Filed In Fairfax County

FAIRFAX, VA — The long-awaited Johnny Depp defamation trial is scheduled to start next Monday in a Fairfax County courtroom, where both Depp and his former wife Amber Heard are planning to take the stand in-person.

Actors James Franco and Paul Bettany, along with billionaire Elon Musk and representatives of the Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros, and the Los Angeles Police Department, also are expected to testify at the trial.

Depp, the Hollywood star who has appeared in many blockbuster films, filed a defamation lawsuit in 2019 against Heard, who is also an actor, for a 2018 Washington Post op-ed she wrote that included comments on domestic violence. Heard’s op-ed did not mention Depp by name. But the actor contends that what Heard wrote in the op-ed damaged his career.

Why is the trial, which is scheduled to start April 11, taking place in Fairfax County? Depp decided to file the defamation lawsuit against Heard in Virginia because the Washington Post's online editions are published through computer servers in Fairfax County.

Depp's lawyers also chose to file the case in Virginia because the state's anti-SLAPP law, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, is more relaxed than the one in California, InsideNoVa reported. Anti-SLAPP laws prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of lawsuits, to intimidate others from exercising their First Amendment rights.

In March, though, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate, who will be presiding over the trial, said Heard's attorneys can argue she has immunity because she spoke out about a matter of public concern with her op-ed.

Azcarate issued a separate order on March 29 that stated the trial will be held in a courtroom on the fifth floor of the Fairfax County Circuit Court. The courtroom will have a limited number of seats available for the litigants, their lawyers, and members of the media and public, the order said.

A pool camera system will be used for the trial, the judge said, and all media requesting access must coordinate with the designated pool camera representative. The trial is expected to last at least a month.

The judge ordered that no overnight camping will be allowed on the Fairfax County Courthouse grounds, including the entire county judicial complex with the boundaries of Chain Bridge Road, Judicial Drive and Main Street in Fairfax.

"Litigants and their legal teams in this trial will not pose for pictures or sign autographs in the Courthouse or on Courthouse grounds," the order stated.

Franco and Musk are expected to testify on behalf of Heard. Bettany will reportedly testify for Depp after his texts with the actor were made public in one of Depp’s previous trials.

In 2016, Heard filed for divorce from Depp, whom she married in 2015 after they met on the set of the film The Rum Diary. Heard alleged that Depp was "verbally and physically abusive to me" during the "entirety of our relationship."

Heard received a $7 million settlement later in 2016. Depp and Heard then said in a joint statement that "our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love," adding, "There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm."

But in response to the Washington Post op-ed, Depp denied all of Heard's abuse allegations. He then filed a lawsuit against the British tabloid The Sun over an article that called him a "wife beater" in reference to Heard's allegations.

"These sick claims are totally untrue," Depp said during that trial.

Depp lost the libel case after a judge ruled in 2020 that what The Sun published about him was "substantially true."