third UPDATE, 2:26 PM PT: It was apparent that issues have been going to get tough as soon as Johnny Depp’s attorneys began to cross study Amber Heard within the actor’s $50 million defamation trial towards his former partner and Run Diary co-star. Nevertheless, few in all probability might have predicted it will grow to be such a fierce fray so rapidly because it did this afternoon.
“You testified that you simply have been raped with a liquor bottle” in Australia through the 2015 making of Pirates of the Caribbean: Lifeless Males Inform No Tales plaintiff’s legal professional Camille Vasquez requested a clearly ruffled Heard at one level this afternoon within the lawyer’s take no prisoners method. “You bled out of your vagina,” the poised lawyer added quoting Heard’s early testimony of sexual assault again to her and asking if she sought medical consideration “for the rape” or took any pictures.
“I didn’t need to inform anybody,” a seemingly dissembling Heard replied. “I hated it, I hated it,” the actress later stated in her cross examination of the state of her relationship with Depp and the assorted pictures she took of him unconscious, both asleep or “on the nod.”
The primary stage of the cross examination Monday additionally solved one of many mysteries of the trial thus far
Instantly after stepping to podium to start cross examination on Monday, Vasquez acknowledged to Heard that the sunglass sporting Depp has not checked out her through the trial that began on April 11. “Not that I’ve seen,” Heard wearily responded as Vasquez stated that Depp absurdly “promised you you’ll by no means see his eyes once more.”
To that finish, the jury was performed a late 2016 audio tape of the couple assembly up in San Francisco after they’d separated and a restraining order was issued. On that tape, Depp can clearly be heard grumbling his soon-to-be ex-wife won’t ever see his eyes once more. On that recording, Depp provides “after all of the shit you stated – you’ll at all times be nothing to me.”
Delayed Monday by an extended convention with all the first attorneys earlier than Decide Penny Azcarte on the return from the afternoon break within the Fairfax County Courthouse, the scene noticed Depp and Heard sitting alone at their respective desk and on the stand doing their respective finest to keep away from one another. Having divorced in 2016 beneath media scrutiny and a TRO, Depp sued Heard in March 2019 for hundreds of thousands over a late 2018 Washington Submit op-ed the actress wrote about being a survivor of home abuse. Although the op-end by no means talked about Depp by title, the previous Oscar nominee has claimed it “devastated” his profession and he was the truth is the one who was abused within the relationship.
Having didn’t get the case dismissed or moved out of Virginia, Heard countersued for $100 million in the summertime of 2020. That countersuit got here months earlier than Depp’s UK libel case towards The Solar tabloid for calling him a “spouse beater” flamed out unsuccessfully in November 2020.
With brief and pointed questions and a now extra typically trying up Depp watching, Brown Rudick’s Vasquez pushed Heard to elucidate why on that late 2016 audio tape the actress additionally appeared to taunt Depp to inform the world that he was the abused one within the relationship not her. “I used to be saying it as a result of he was a person who beat up for 5 years,” Heard pushed again. “I might by no means damage Johnny.”
In a tactical transfer to place the witness beneath an more and more harsh gentle, Vasquez sought to undermine Heard’s emotional testimony of in the present day and in early Could. To that finish, she led with the accusations of the likes of a March 2013 incident of Depp “hitting you many instances” and as 2015 incident in Tokyo. Like nearly all of the alleged incidents of violence that have been photographed and introduced within the case, Vasquez reprimanded Heard for the shortage of bruises, wounds and extra in lots of the pictures across the time of the violence that she claims Depp inflicted upon her.
In a single picture after one other from numerous movie and business occasions throughout her marriage to Depp and 2015 clip from James Cordon’s CBS late evening present, Heard was confronted on why she did appear to be exhibiting any indicators of the violent abuse she claims the Pirates of the Caribbean actor battered her with. “Your nostril doesn’t seem to injured in any of those photos,” Vasquez stated to the defendant. Pointing to the facility of nicely utilized make-up, Heard coolly added: “Make-up is not going to cover-up swelling …ice will.”
Within the forwards and backwards between the defendant and the lawyer, Heard on various events sternly stated that she had offered all of the proof she had. On pictures not seen by the jury, she additionally declared that “she wish to” have included such snaps however “that’s not my job.”
Punctuated with various statements of “I don’t know” and “I don’t recall,” from Heard, the cross examination additionally centered on the actress’ disputed assertion that she donated her 2016 $7 million divorce settlement, all of which she had obtained by October 2018, to charity. “As of in the present day, you haven’t paid $3.5 hundreds of thousands of you personal cash to the ACLU …as of in the present day you haven’t paid $3.5 hundreds of thousands of your personal cash to the Los Angeles Youngsters’s Hospital,” Vasquez clarified to an uncomfortable and agreeing Heard. I’ve by no means needed to be seen as a sufferer,” Heard replied with a streak of anger because the lawyer listed off claims that the actress needed Depp’s cash and good press. “I pledged the whole lot” to the charities, Heard added. “I haven’t been in a position to fulfill these pledges as a result of I’m being sued.”
Vasquez rightly remarked repeatedly that Heard had the entire $7 million practically six months earlier than her ex-husband sued her in March 2019, which fairly clearly means she wasn’t hampered by any authorized worries over that point. The legal professional additionally repeatedly learn out and performed public statements by Heard that she “donated” all of her settlement to the charities.
On this context, $500,000 funds to the ACLU from Heard’s post-Depp boyfriend Elon Musk have been entered as soon as once more into the document. In a few of her last phrases of the day on the stand, Heard insisted that these donations from Musk didn’t depend towards the sum of the $3.5 million the actress had pledged – a nuance which will have been misplaced on the jury within the staccato
Backwards and forwards.
Musk was named as a possible witness by Heard within the trial, however the would-be Twitter proprietor is not going to be testifying it was confirmed weeks in the past.
Coming time and again to the shortage of medical data for a lot of of Heard’s alleged accidents, Vasquez acquired caught up at one level within the paperwork of a go to by the actress to the actor’s doctor Dr. David Kipper. Whereas making an attempt to nail Heard on the shortage of citations of accidents, Vasquez was knocked off her recreation when Heard famous that the report stated she was a “well-nourished male.” Sensing a gap, Heard stated that she believed there was “rather a lot lacking” from the Kipper paperwork. “There was nothing to doc,” Vasquez rapidly replied.
On one other event, with Depp’s self-admitted drug use being highlighted, the 2 sparred over whether or not the actress “captured” the actor doing cocaine. Centering on a broadly seen picture of a desk in one of many couple’s residences with a number of strains of the drug chopped out on it, issues turned nearly comical with Heard responding to Vasquez’s demand to know why there wasn’t any “residue” on the “tidy” desk.
“While you snort cocaine, usually it goes up your nostril,” Heard began, including that maybe the lawyer didn’t know the way taking cocaine labored.
As he has earlier than over the earlier 4 weeks of the trial, the broadly mocked Depp seemed to giggle and quip together with his lawyer Ben Chew. The actor’s was significantly full of life throughout one interval this afternoon when the attorneys have been as soon as once more taking to Decide Penny Azcarte in what was a reasonably damaged up session.
Heading into the ultimate weeks of the trial, rhe cross examination of Heard ended in the present day round 5:22 PM ET. It would proceed on Tuesday with court docket set to start out at 9 AM ET. Decide Azcarte has stated he desires to see closing arguments begin and end on Could 27.
2nd UPDATE, 12:18 PM: Even earlier than the cross-examination of Amber Heard by Johnny Depp’s attorneys has started within the former Pirates of the Caribbean star’s $50 million defamation trial towards his ex-wife, issues acquired very heated and messy in the present day in Fairfax, VA.
How To Watch The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Trial: Livestream Hyperlink & Trial Schedule
“I attempted to guard Johnny … and the key I attempted exhausting to maintain for 5 years,” Heard loudly informed the court docket of why she by no means filed prices or a LAPD report towards her then-husband. “Sadly, all of that is actual,” the actress added Monday of her claims of bodily, emotional, verbal and sexual violence. “I narrowly survived it, however I survived it.”
Calling the general public spectacle of the media consideration and the much-delayed trial “torture,” Heard proclaimed, “I need to transfer on; I need Johnny to maneuver on.”
Aside from that repeated sentiment, it was nearly all concerning the cash in the present day because the high-profile trial started its fifth week after per week off — particularly, Aquaman star Heard’s profession and the $7 million settlement Heard obtained from Depp within the couple’s 2016 divorce.
Throughout her testimony that her skilled life had been harmed by the Depp controversy, Heard laid out the clauses of her three-picture Justice League contract with Warner Bros. The actress stated that her pay for 2018’s Aquaman was $1 million plus “field workplace bonuses.” Heard additionally revealed that her test for the 2023-premiering sequel Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom was $2 million — a movie that she barely was in a position to stay with, she claimed in the present day.
“I fought actually exhausting to remain within the film, they didn’t need me … within the movie,” Heard stated of her Mera position within the James Wan-helmed sequel. Subsequently, the movie had “a very-pared down model of that position … they eliminated a bunch out.”
There have been whispers that Heard really is within the DC flick little or no — rumors that Warner Bros has neither confirmed nor denied.
The actress additional detailed Monday how her profitable contract with cosmetics firm L’Oréal dried up after the statements by Depp confidant and former lawyer Adam Waldman have been picked up by the Each day Mail and different media over the previous couple of years. After making $200,000 an episode for her stint on Paramount+’s 2020 adaptation of Steven King’s The Stand, Heard stated on the stand that she primarily was dropped from all promotion of the sequence because of the perceptions of her and Depp’s lawsuit.
By way of the $7 million divorce settlement, how a lot of that settlement really has been donated to the ACLU and Youngsters’s Hospital Los Angeles as Heard promised six years in the past was a significant theme of in the present day’s testimony. Usually cited as credit score to Heard’s character and a stable refutation to taints of her being a gold digger, the very fact is Heard has not handed over the overwhelming majority of the respective $3.5 million to both the ACLA or CHLA, as Deadline completely confirmed on January 6, 2021.
Clearly making an attempt to show the tide on the shortage of fulfilling her pledge, Heard informed her lawyer Elaine Bredehoft that she “was receiving the installments over time” and paying them out over time for “tax advantages.” Declaring that she “totally intends” to pay the donations in full and detailing how her profession was harmed after the couple’s divorce, Heard added she “would love [Depp] to cease suing me so I can.”
Within the alternate, Heard famous that she has paid out “over $6 million” in authorized charges since Depp sued her in 2019 over a late-2018 Washington Submit op-ed on home violence. A few of these charges may embrace Heard’s participation and testimony in Depp’s finally unsuccessful 2020 UK trial to sue Rupert Murdoch’s The Solar tabloid for calling him a “spouse beater.”
Regardless that a joint assertion on the couple’s 2016 divorce bluntly stated there “by no means false claims for “monetary achieve’” and “there was by no means intent of bodily or emotional hurt,” the often-litigious Depp insists that he by no means abused Heard and actually was the sufferer of abuse within the relationship. The fired Implausible Beasts actor additionally stated three years in the past and repeatedly since that Heard’s ACLU-drafted op-ed, which by no means talked about him by title, “devastated” his once-highflying profession.
Requested at size concerning the op-ed, which Heard retweeted on the time with a headline that the Jeff Bezos-owned broadsheet later finessed, the actor acknowledged, “It’s not about Johnny; the one one that thinks it’s about Johnny is Johnny.” On the verge of tears and with a breaking voice, she went on say, “It’s about me and what occurred to me.”
Heard testified later that she by no means first introduced up the sexual assault allegations in her marriage. Explaining her summer time 2020 $100 million countersuit towards Depp, Heard stated that her ex-husband’s right-hand man Waldman, allegedly on behalf of the actor, gave info of sexual assaults claims and extra to the media to discredit the actress. Waldman just isn’t part of Depp’s authorized staff within the Virginia courtroom on the trial that started April 11.
“All I’ve is my title, I come from nothing,” the Rum Diary actor pleaded to the courtroom earlier within the East Coast afternoon. “I used to be by no means involved in Johnny’s cash,” she went on to say of the $7 million settlement the couple ultimately agreed on to finish their relationship. Heard made some extent of telling the courtroom that she took the cash merely to finish the authorized preventing and that she initially had provided far more.
Working the danger of dropping the jury’s focus with an extended examination, Bredehoft instantly after the lunch break in the present day launched again into the couple’s 2016 divorce proceedings to seize their consideration. Taking part in the court docket an audiotape of the duo from June 2016 discussing the hurdles that appeared to hinder their potential to maneuver the separation, and amidst fixed objections from Depp’s staff, the protection heard Heard asking her then-husband to conform to a “mutual gag order” as he complained about allegation of abuse and a brief restraining order “throwing me beneath the bus.”
“I used to be making an attempt to get Johnny to cease the smear marketing campaign,” Heard stated from the stand after the primary portion of the tape was performed. She informed the Fairfax County Courthouse that Depp promised to “smash my profession” and “that I’d be promoting Relies upon.” As has been the case by way of most of his ex-spouse’s testimony, a sunglasses-wearing Depp remained huddled over the desk in entrance of him scribbling because the sometimes-crying Heard spoke and as parts of the 2016 tape performed
“I used to be begging Johnny to not make me show what I’ve been sitting on the stand proving to you in the present day,” Heard claimed on breaking the TRO to get “sure males” surrounded Depp to “again off.”
“I don’t need this,” the actress added of the bitter and soiled laundry-airing trial Depp launched on March 2019. “I didn’t need to damage him, I liked him a lot … that’s why I didn’t file prison prices, that’s why I didn’t file a police report despite the fact that it was starting used towards me … by your aspect.”
Heard will proceed on the stand till the tip of court docket in the present day at round 5:30 p.m. ET and is predicted again tomorrow
UPDATED, 10:28 AM PT: Amber Heard testified in the present day that fears for her personal security led her to file for divorce towards Johnny Depp in 2016 and that she additionally sought a restraining order after an argument by which he struck her with a cellphone.
“I knew that if I didn’t, I’d possible not actually survive,” Heard stated Monday as she fought again tears. “I used to be so scared that it was going to finish actually badly for me, and I actually didn’t need to depart him.”
She filed for divorce within the aftermath of a Could 21, 2016, argument at their downtown Los Angeles penthouse, one which led to the police being referred to as. Though Heard didn’t file a police report that night, she later sought and obtained a restraining order towards him.
“I needed to alter my locks, I needed a superb evening’s sleep,” she stated. “Safety would at all times let him in the home it doesn’t matter what I requested them.”
She added, “I used to be scared and really conflicted as a result of the individual I used to be fearful of was additionally the individual I used to be in love with.”
Depp has denied Heard’s allegations that he was bodily violent, and filed a $50 million defamation case towards her after she printed a Washington Submit op ed by which she wrote that he was “a public determine representing home abuse.”
In her testimony on Monday, she went by way of the occasions of Could 21.
On the time, she and Depp had been separated for a few month. However his mom had simply died, and he and Heard made plans for him to return by the Jap Columbia penthouse that day.
Heard stated that when Depp arrived early that night, she might inform that he was inebriated. He began speaking about an incident from a month earlier, by which feces had been left on their mattress. Heard contends that it was from one in every of their canine, however Depp insisted that one in every of her buddies had left it there as a prank.
“He simply went on and on about it,” Heard stated.
She acquired a male pal on the cellphone to elucidate why such a prank “was unattainable,” Heard stated, however Depp ended up screaming at him.
Heard stated that Depp, after leaving and going up the steps, then got here again down and grabbed the cellphone and informed the pal: “You’ll be able to take her. You’ll be able to have her.”
It was then, she stated, that Depp “throws his arm again with the cellphone and throws it in my face.” She stated it felt like her eye had been hit.
“I put my head in my hand and instantly began crying. I stated, ‘Johnny, you hit me,’” Heard stated.
She stated that Depp began taunting her, saying, “Oh yeah, I hit you, huh?”
She stated that he then “whacks me on prime of my head” and grabbed her by her hair.
“I don’t know if he was meaning to hit me round face, however he does this gesture round my face to attempt to expose my face to him,” she stated. She stated that Depp then informed her, “Let me see how unhealthy I damage you this time.”
Heard stated that her pal, Raquel, residing within the condominium subsequent door, got here into the room and “managed to get in entrance, between he and I.” Heard stated that she calmly informed Depp, “No, Johnny, no.”
Her pal put her arms round her as she curled up across the sofa, however “Johnny is simply screaming at me to get the f*ck up.”
She stated that two of Depp’s safety guards then entered, with one in every of them saying to Depp, “Boss. boss.” She stated that Depp then smashed issues across the condominium and ultimately left.
Heard stated that she didn’t name 911, however she did name her lawyer, who referred her to a home relations legal professional. Depp’s attorneys objected to Heard’s makes an attempt to determine who referred to as the police — it was a pal — however stated that when the officers arrived, she informed them that she refused to cooperate on her legal professional’s recommendation.
She additionally declined to file a report.
“I needed to guard Johnny,” she stated. “I didn’t need him to be arrested. I didn’t need him Ito be in hassle. I didn’t need the world to know.”
The jury was proven a sequence of images exhibiting her with redness on the aspect of her face. Heard stated that the pictures have been taken that night by her pal. One other picture, which she stated was taken the following day, confirmed some blackness across the eye and redness beneath.
Depp has acknowledged throwing a cellphone on the sofa, however denies placing Heard. His case has centered partially on witnesses who stated that they noticed Heard within the days after their argument however didn’t discover bruises on her face.
Heard’s authorized staff additionally introduced textual content messages that Depp wrote to Heard on Could 22, the day after their confrontation. “All my love and profound apologies,” he wrote that night. Heard stated that in a cellphone dialog with him, Depp “stated he was sorry he reacted the way in which he did” and that “he didn’t man to harm me.”
PREVIOUSLY, 8:24 AM PT: Amber Heard’s testimony resumed on Monday in Johnny Depp’s $50 million defamation trial towards her, because the actress made additional particulars of her ex-husband’s alleged abuse throughout their marriage.
The Fairfax, VA, trial was on a one-week break as Decide Penney Azcarate attended a pre-scheduled judicial convention, however Heard picked up the place she left off, with tales from their stormy marriage, introduced together with audio of their arguments and pictures of her alleged accidents.
One picture, from December 15, 2015, confirmed her bruised temple. Heard testified that Depp prompted the harm throughout one in every of their arguments.
“Johnny had his hand on a part of my face, with my face down, and he was punching my head, repeatedly punching my in my head,” she stated. “That’s what prompted that bruise in my temple.”
Depp has denied abusing Heard. He filed his lawsuit towards her after she printed a Washington Submit op ed in December 2018, by which she wrote that “two years in the past, I grew to become a public determine representing home abuse, and I felt the total power of our tradition’s wrath for ladies who converse out.”
In Monday’s testimony, Heard stated that by January 2016, Depp’s drug use had grow to be so extreme that he had been “hallucinating.” Depp’s legal professional objected to that particular characterization, however Heard was allowed to explain different elements his conduct.
“He was speaking to individuals who weren’t there, that means individuals who weren’t within the room,” she stated. “He would touch upon somebody being within the room behind me who wasn’t there. It was terrifying.”
Heard additionally addressed a infamous incident from April 2016, once they acquired in an argument after Depp missed her thirtieth birthday dinner. She stated that their struggle included a shoving match, and Depp throwing a bottle of champagne that went by way of a portray. She stated that he then wrestled her down on their mattress and grabbed her by her pubic space. He was taunting me: ‘Look who’s so powerful. Wish to be powerful like a person now?’” Depp lastly screamed at her, “Glad f*cking birthday!” after which stormed out, she stated.
The subsequent day, she stated, a pal came to visit they usually have been to drive to the Coachella Music Competition. Considered one of their canine, Boo, had been on the mattress however had bowel-control points. Depp had testified earlier that fecal matter had been left within the mattress, an incident that was the supply of a Saturday Night time Stay skit over the weekend.
However Heard denied committing any form of prank. “I don’t suppose that’s humorous, interval,” she stated. “I believe that’s disgusting.”
