Featured Image Credit: Law & Crime Network
Topics: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard
Poppy Bilderbeck
An Amber Heard supporter has been kicked out of the courtroom for the rest of the trial for reportedly using her phone and misrepresenting information.
Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp is suing ex-wife Amber Heard in a $50 million (£38.2 million) defamation lawsuit.
He claims an opinion piece she wrote for The Washington Post insinuated she was a victim of domestic abuse during their marriage and that Heard's accusations have taken his 'ability to walk down the street'.
Days into the trial, which began on Monday, 11 April, Judge Penny Azacarte struck Depp's friend Gina Deuters from the record for having viewed clips of the trial online.
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In connection with Deuters' strike, a supporter of Heard, Eva Barlow has since also been 'exclude[d]' from the courtroom.
During her testimony, Deuters recalled Depp and Heard's wedding in 2015. She claimed to have been offered drugs by Heard. However, the jurors were then told to leave the room as Heard's lawyers requested a conference with Judge Azacarte.
Barlow was caught on camera just before, passing her cellphone to Heard's lawyer, Ben Rottenborn, Law and Crime reports.
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Barlow showed Rottenborn an Instagram post by Deuters, which is dated from January 2021. However it was presented to Judge Azcarate as if it were from the current defamation trial.
Deuters was then questioned whether or not she had seen any of the trial testimony. When it was established that she had, she was 'excused' and her testimony stricken from the record 'in its entirety'.
As well as giving Heard's legal team misrepresenting information, which played a role in Deuters exclusion from the court, Barlow also faced scrutiny for using her mobile phone.
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According to a court order, personal electronic devices are banned from being used inside the courtroom. Only the two legal teams representing Depp and Heard are exempt from the rule.
Barlow – who was texting and tweeting from within the courtroom, according to Law and Crime – was subsequently in breach of the rule.
Depp's attorney, Ben Chew, called Barlow's interference and Heard's legal team's conduct 'outrageous' and requested for Barlow to be stricken from the trial.
Chew argued Barlow is not only a journalist but also Heard's girlfriend – both positions which Heard's lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, denied – despite Barlow calling herself 'The interrupter' and 'Journalist' on Twitter.
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Chew also alleged Barlow and Heard had been communicating in the testimony via passed notes.
Off the back of Chew's argument and Barlow's rule-break, Judge Azcarate ruled in favour of Depp's legal team's request to have Barlow permanently banned from the courtroom.
The response to Chew's request to have Barlow excused reads: "Upon consideration of Plaintiff's Motion to exclude Eva Barlow from the courtroom for the pendency of the trial ("Plaintiff's Motion"), any opposition, and being fully informed, it is, this 15th day of April 2022, hereby ORDERED as follows:
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"1. Plaintiff's Motion is GRANTED."
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