Amber Heard will take the stand next week in blockbuster defamation trial
Amber Heard is due to take the stand three weeks into the explosive defamation trial brought by Johnny Depp against the actress. Here’s what to expect.
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Amber Heard could take the stand in her ex-husband Johnny Depp’s defamation case against her as early as Monday.
Heard will take the stand next week as the first witness for her defense in the $US50 million trial.
The Aquaman actress will begin her testimony in the Fairfax County Courthouse, Virginia, as soon as Depp’s team finish their case, according to reports.
Prior to the April 11 start of the five-week trial, Heard had tried unsuccessfully to have the suit dismissed or moved to another jurisdiction.
Failing to do that, in 2020, Heard filed a $US100 million countersuit against Depp.
Representatives for Heard have not yet made any comment about the actress’ testimony or its schedule.
An insider told Deadline: “It’s hard to see how Amber won’t prove to be a highly effective weapon against Depp in her own advocacy.”
“Regardless of how they have tried to characterise her, she has been nothing but well composed and pretty conservative in court without having said a word.”
Depp has repeatedly denied his ex-wife’s allegations of domestic abuse against him.
In four days of testimony, Depp gave rambling and at times irritable accounts of his own victimhood.
This week, Depp’s employees, from his business advisor to his security guard gave testimony that Heard was in fact the aggressor and “wore the pants” in arguments and at times physical altercations.
Heard was not a party and did not testify in Depp’s 2020 libel claim against The Sun in the UK, which he lost.
The trial in the Fairfax County Courthouse runs from Monday to Thursday from 10am to 5pm, and is scheduled to conclude on May 19.
HEARD “CRAZY, CRAZY FIERCE”
Johnny Depp’s security guard in Australia, Malcolm Connolly, said he observed “chaos, screaming and shouting” in the house the couple rented in Queensland and Depp nursing his hand, which had the finger tip chopped off.
Mr Connolly told the court via a streaming link on Thursday local time how he had tried to get his boss out of the house in Queensland and away from “the situation” in which Depp was arguing with Heard on the night he lost the tip of his finger.
“Amber appears and she’s screaming, berating him, f--k off with your guys, that’s all you ever do ... you f--king coward ...”, said Mr Connolly.
Mr Connolly said Depp went back into the house to further engage with Heard but Connolly got him out to get medical treatment for Depp’s finger, which was “a mess... it looked like an exploding cigar ... I can see bone,” Mr Connolly said.
During the argument in the house, Mr Connolly testified that Heard’s demeanour was “crazy, crazy, fierce”.
The court heard audio played of Depp shout: “What you are and who you are and how you f--ked me over makes me feel sick”.
Mr Connolly, who worked as security for Depp for 18 years and for the couple in numerous locations including Australia said during these years he witnessed “Amber screaming ... shouting and bawling ... more often than not” and saw a cigarette lighter, and a can of soft drink thrown in the area of Depp on separate occasions.
He also said he observed swelling, and marks on Depp’s neck and face, such as bruising on his eye socket, a fat lip, scratch on his left ear regularly.
A 2013 honeymoon on the Orient Express across Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore “started fine”, said Mr Connolly, but two days into the trip “I could see Johnny going down ... he’s not enjoying this”.
Mr Connolly took a photo of Depp, Heard and the Orient Express staff with Depp’s face showing swelling and bruising.
It comes as Heard sought a pay-off from Depp in exchange for keeping details of their volatile relationship private, a new court filing shows.
Heard said she wouldn’t immediately file an order of protection if Depp gave her access to his luxury car and three downtown Los Angeles loft-style penthouses — all at his expense, according to a 2016 letter presented at the former couple’s bombshell defamation trial.
The May 24, 2016 letter from Heard lawyer Samantha Spector, sought a lucrative arrangement to “do everything possible to keep this personal matter out of the media spotlight”.
Ms Spector said the actress demanded “exclusive use and possession of the black Range Rover, the vehicle she is currently driving, with Johnny to continue to make all payments”.
Also on Thursday, Depp’s driver testified that Heard had confessed to leaving feces on the couple’s bed and it was a “horrible, practical joke gone wrong”.
It comes as Depp’s business manager testified that Heard’s demands for the couple’s divorce settlement began at $US4m — “and then it got worse.”
“She initially was looking for a consideration of $4m, but her demand continually increased,” Edward White said.
“It went from $4m to $5m. Then it went from $5m, to five and a half million dollars,” Mr White said. “Then it went to $7m, and then it was $7m and she required — demanded — that Mr. Depp also pay $500,000 to her attorneys.
“So the next event was that all the community liabilities that were unresolved — approximately $13.5m — that Mr. Depp had to pay those liabilities in its entirely. So at that point, she was demanding $14.25m of consideration.
“And then it got worse,” Mr White said. “The next demand was that all of this consideration be paid to her free of taxation.”
Mr White also said that Heard had a taste for $US500 bottles of wine.
Earlier on Thursday, local time, the court in the defamation case brought by Johnny Depp against Amber Heard were presented with evidence that suggested the actress failed to pay most of the pledged millions of dollars to an American civil liberties charity and a children’s hospital.
Terence Dougherty, general counsel for the ACLU, said Heard promised to pay the organisation $US3.5 million over 10 years — but only came up with $US350,000.
Dougherty said Johnny Depp put up $US100,000 and $US500,000 was paid through a donor fund — with a total of $US1.3m donated to the ACLU.
These funds and the gesture of donating them are partly what secured Heard her role as ACLU Ambassador - and landed her the editorial opportunity to write an opinion piece for The Washington Post in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse.
That article was picked up by other news outlets who named Depp as the alleged abuser.
Asked about efforts to collect the pledged donations, Mr Dougherty said they reached out to Heard in 2019 about the instalments, “and we learned that she was having financial difficulties.”
Dougherty’s testimony was given through a video deposition taken in December 2021, with Depp’s lawyers questioning him first in the actor’s $US50m deposition suit.
Questioning of Dougherty by Depp’s lawyers also revealed Heard's murky finances in which Johnny Depp and Elon Musk were both involved in honouring some of Heard’s promised donations to the ACLU.
The court also learned that Heard’s 2018 op-ed piece on domestic violence was written in consultation with ACLU staffers — and left little doubt she was referring to Johnny Depp, according to Dougherty.
The witness said Heard’s lawyers suggested tweaks to “neuter” references to Depp in The Washington Post article so it wouldn’t violate the estranged couple’s nondisclosure agreement.
But ACLU staffers sought to add “fire and rage” to the piece, Dougherty testified.
“Based on my review of higher drafts of the op-ed I knew that it was referring to Johnny Depp and her marriage”.
At this testimony, Depp could be seen nodding and smiling.
He was also observed to eat from a pile of Gummy Bears during the testimony.
‘YOU WEREN’T IN LOVE’: HEARD’S MUSK TEXTS REVEALED
Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s name came up in the bombshell Amber Heard and Johnny Depp trial, after Depp previously accused Heard of cheating on him with Musk during their troubled marriage.
Depp also accused Heard and Musk of having a threesome with supermodel Cara Delevingne in his Los Angeles home while he was in Australia, a claim Musk has denied.
Musk was dragged into the case again as Christian Carino, Depp’s former agent took the stand.
Carino, who was once engaged to Lady Gaga, was asked about Heard’s relationship with Musk.
The pair have insisted they only became romantic after Heard’s 2017 divorce from Depp. Asked if they were dating as early as 2016, Carino said: “I don’t know if they were dating, but they had definitely spent time together”.
Lawyers for Depp read out text messages exchanged between Carino and Heard at the time.
“Dealing with break-up. I hate when things go public. See, I’m so sad,” Heard said in a message about the end of her relationship with Musk.
“You weren’t in love with him and you told me 1000 times you were just filling space,” Carino wrote. “Why would you be sad if you weren’t in love with him to begin with?”
Heard responded: “I know but I wanted time to grieve and recover in my own time.”
Asked by a lawyer for Depp if Heard was referring to Musk or Depp, Carino said “I don’t know”.
Meanwhile, Depp was caught in a bizarre courtroom activity during the trial, drawing intricate portraits on yellow Post-it notes. Depp passed one sketch to his lawyer, Benjamin Chew, with the bizarre exchange going viral on social media platform, TikTok.
A TikTok user, who declared themselves to be on “#TeamJohnny,” posted the video of the 58-year-old, which has since garnered more than 4 million views in less than 18 hours.
The Post-it note appears to feature a sketch of a woman. In the TikTok video, Depp’s lawyer, seated next to him, takes off his eyeglasses to get a closer look at the artwork before the actor whispers in his ear.
After examining the courthouse drawing, Depp’s lawyer nods approvingly and holds his hand to his heart, then points at his client. Meanwhile, the actor smiles wide, seemingly proud of his portrait sketch.
The interaction occurred while waiting for witness Tara Roberts, Depp’s island estate manager, to join the court via video.
However, his artistic moment didn’t stop there.
On Wednesday, Depp was seen drawing once again, this time colouring with purple and pink markers while waiting for the jury to arrive.
ELON MUSK, JAMES FRANCO WON’T TESTIFY AT TRIAL
Billionaire Elon Musk and actor James Franco will no longer be testifying in the Heard-Depp case, The New York Post reports.
Despite both being named on Heard’s witness list at the start of the trial, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro said his client would not testify.
A source told the Post that Franco won’t take the stand, either. His name was brought up in the previous legal case that Depp brought against The Sun in 2020, over an article that called Depp a “wife beater” based on Heard’s allegations of abuse.
Heard had testified in that case that Franco, 44, asked her “what the f---” happened to her face after Depp allegedly threw a phone at her.
“We were talking. He was saying to me, ‘Oh my God, what happened to you?,’” Heard said of Franco, whom Depp allegedly accused of being her lover. “He saw my face, and he said, ‘What the f---k?’ ”
Meanwhile, Musk, — who recently agreed to buy Twitter for $44bn — dated Heard for a year after her relationship with Depp ended in 2016.
The doorman at Depp and Heard’s LA building, Alejandro Romero, previously provided a statement claiming he saw Musk “a few times a week” late at night in 2015 — and that the Tesla CEO would “always visit when Mr. Depp was not at home.”
Musk and Heard have said their romance only started once she filed for divorce from Depp. It has also been alleged that Heard once had a threesome with Musk and supermodel Cara Delevingne.
EX-MANAGER DEFENDS DEPP
Depp’s former talent manager has told a court that his client’s reputation as “one of the finest actors of his generation” has not been impacted by allegations the star abused his ex-wife and threatened to “f--- her burnt corpse to make sure she’s dead”.
Christian Carino testified at Depp’s high profile defamation trial against Amber Heard in the Fairfax County Court, Virginia on Wednesday.
Mr Depp is suing Ms Heard for US$50m ($A67m) over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she wrote about being a victim of domestic abuse.
The article did not name Mr Depp, but he has argued that it clearly alluded to him and damaged his career and reputation.
Ms Heard has countersued for $100m ($A134m), claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.
Under questioning, Mr Carino told the court that Mr Depp was still “one of the finest actors of his generation” and that “the view on his acting ability has not changed”. He added that Mr Depp’s personal life was, however, “no longer shrouded in mystery to the public” following the breakdown of his marriage and subsequent lawsuits.
“My opinion is that Amber’s accusations would have had the most dramatic impact on his off-screen reputation,” Mr Carino said.
“I’m not talking about any one specific accusation.”
Mr Carino, who also previously represented Ms Heard as a talent agent, later told the court that he believed the actor lost the opportunity to star on Pirates of the Caribbean 6 because of Ms Heard’s allegations against him.
Both Heard and Depp, who met in 2009 and were married from 2015 to 2016, have accused the other of physical violence during their relationship. They have both denied the claims.
In court papers, Heard has accused Depp of abusing her throughout their relationship, alleging that he slapped her, kicked her, headbutted her and tore clumps of hair out of her scalp.
Earlier, Depp was presented with several damning text messages that he sent to Heard, friends and associates during the couple’s relationship.
“Let’s burn Amber,” read one text sent by Depp to his friend Paul Bettany on June 11, 2013.
“Let’s drown her before we burn her. I will f--- her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead”.
Depp previously sued The Sun for printing a headline that called him a “wife beater.” He lost that case in 2020.
POLICE ‘DID NOT IDENTIFY’ HEARD AS A VICTIM
A police officer who responded to a domestic disturbance between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in 2016 claimed she did not find any signs of injury on the actress.
LAPD Officer Melissa Saenz provided a deposition on the ninth day of Depp’s defamation trial against Heard.
Depp, 58, is suing Heard, 36, for $70m, claiming she defamed him in a 2018 Washington Post opinion piece in which she described herself as a victim of domestic abuse.
Today, one of the Los Angeles police officers who attended the former married couple’s LA penthouse in response to a call testified that she determined Heard wasn’t “a victim of domestic violence” and that no crime had been committed.
Officer Saenz told a prerecorded deposition that she and her partner didn’t take notes when they showed up at the penthouse shared by the then-couple, nor did they take photos.
But Officer Saenz said Heard had been uncooperative and under questioning said she found no signs of an injury or property damage.
“I did not identify her as a victim of domestic violence,” Officer Saenz said.
The defence showed Officer Saenz photos of Heard’s face with red marks, but the officer said she didn’t find the marks consistent with an injury or having been hit in the face with a mobile phone.
“It’s consistent with her crying, her face is flushed,” the officer said in the deposition, which was filmed on March 31, 2021.
The deposition came on day nine of the ongoing trial, which has wrapped until tomorrow local time.
Earlier, an expert witness testifying for Depp accused Amber Heard of “grossly exaggerating” symptoms of psychological distress and diagnosed the actress with two personality disorders.
Psychologist Dr Shannon Curry took the stand on Tuesday saying that she reviewed case documents, medical records, and recordings of the pair and met with Heard on “two separate dates” to conduct her evaluation in December last year.
She said they spent 12 hours together and that “the result of Ms Heard’s evaluation supported two diagnoses – borderline personality disorder (BPD) and histrionic personality disorder”.
Heard rolled her eyes as the forensic psychologist testified on behalf of Depp and explained that “instability” was the main characteristic of BPD and histrionic personality disorder occurs when someone relies too heavily on attention and approval from others.
Dr Curry told the Virginia court she also concluded that Heard “did not have” Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” despite the actress having selected “yes” to experiences with 19 of 20 indicators for the condition during therapy.
“There were some pretty significant indications she was grossly exaggerating symptoms of PTSD when she was asked about them,” she said.
According to Dr Curry, not even the most “disabling” cases typically experienced that many symptoms.
Amber Heard's reaction to Dr. Curry's testimony: #JohnnyDepp v #AmberHeard@LawCrimeNetworkpic.twitter.com/n8qeAHMlEv
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 26, 2022
Dr Curry said she determined that Heard had just three of the 20 indicators – including repetitive nightmares and a “startled response” – but that they could be attributed to other factors.
“Feigning is essentially faking or exaggerating symptoms that aren’t present,” she said.
“Just because someone doesn’t have PTSD doesn’t mean that they weren’t psychologically harmed psychologically.”
Dr Curry said Heard “externalises blame” and can be “self-righteous”, “judgmental” and angry. Dr Curry also described Heard as“an overly dramatic presentation” that “really lacks any substance”.
She added that there’s a “desperate fear of abandonment” and the reaction to that is to try to keep a significant other close and this behaviour can become extreme.
Dr Curry said those with borderline disorder can appear charming and socially sophisticated, but they can also blow up and be unaware of problems in their thinking.
They’re very concerned with appearances, can be cruel, and may struggle to admit faults, prompting a lot of issues in close relationships, she added.
Reactions can be violent or aggressive and they can be abusive to their partner to physically stop them from leaving.
They may also use the legal system to stop their partner from leaving by threatening to file a restraining order or claiming that they have been abused, she said.
“When somebody is afraid of being abandoned by their partner or someone else in their environment and they have this disorder, they’ll make desperate attempts to prevent that from happening,” Dr Curry said.
“These are behaviours that are usually very extreme and very concerning to the people around them.”
Dr Curry said people with borderline disorder can feel slighted easily and will often go to extremes to express anger.
“When someone is not even doing anything wrong, a lot of times (the person with BPD will) read into things they perceive as a slight to them or someone intending to harm them and they’ll explode or react in a heightened manner that is just exhausting,” she added.
“This is a disorder of contradictions (and) the person with personality disorder can often be very charming and socially sophisticated.”
"Grossly exaggerated." A psychologist testified #AmberHeard did not have PTSD and concluded that Heard tried to fake the symptoms.
— Court TV (@CourtTV) April 26, 2022
WATCH #CourtTV LIVE - #JohnnyDeppvsAmberHeard - https://t.co/tnYdPcDRMUpic.twitter.com/BhzUDsWREw
On his fourth and final day on the stand on Monday, Depp was cross-examined by Heard’s lawyer, Ben Rottenborn.
He was asked about audio recordings of arguments with Heard and whether she was the only person who had a problem with his alcohol abuse.
“Sir, if anyone had a problem with my drinking, at any time in my life, it was me,” Depp replied. “The only person I’ve abused in my life is myself.”
The court earlier heard that Depp wrote a series of text messages to and about Heard in which he called her derogatory names such as “idiot cow” and spoke inflicting violence on her.
“I’ll smack the uglec--t around before I let her in, dont worry,” one text sent on January 17, 2013 read.
“Did that worthless hooker arrive?”
In a message sent on December 18, 2014, Depp described himself in a message to Heard as “a f---ing savage”, the court heard.
“I always regret it when I jump, or worse, when you jump. I’m sorry for being less, for your disappointment in me. For my behaviour,” it read.
“I’m a f---ing savage. Gotta lose that. Gonna’ lose that. The devil is all around, right?”
In another, Depp wrote of Heard that he “never want(s) to lay eyes on that filthy whore again”, while they were still married.
The former couple settled their divorce in August 2016, releasing a joint statement which read in part, “Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love.”
The trial, which started on April 11, is expected to run for six weeks.
Originally published as Amber Heard will take the stand next week in blockbuster defamation trial
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