Amber Heard’s lawyers cross-examine Johnny Depp just after two days of testimony
Johnny Depp’s express textual content messages arrived under scrutiny during cross-assessment by Amber Heard’s lawyers Thursday soon after he expended two times testifying in his defamation lawsuit accusing Listened to of lying about abuse and assaulting him in the course of their marriage.
Depp took the stand for several hours this 7 days detailing their relationship, accusing Listened to of throwing factors at him and verbally abusing him. He characterised her as getting a “need for conflict, she has a require for violence.”
But Heard’s lawyers put Depp on the defensive Thursday, using his correspondence to highlight instances he utilized violent language and spotlight moments when he appeared to acknowledge to a will need to stop abusing liquor.
Heard’s authorized team presented textual content messages Depp sent in 2013 that claimed he would subject matter her a violent dying.
“Let’s drown her right before we melt away her,” he wrote, then proposing to violate her corpse afterward.
Depp wrote in a distinctive 2013 trade that he would “smack” her all-around before he permit her in, referring to her using a vulgar insult.
A variety of messages despatched by Depp and introduced to court provided obscene language utilised to denigrate ladies.
In past testimony, Depp admitted to drug use and a prior dependancy to opiates, but he mentioned he was hardly ever “out of control” when he was inebriated. He accused Listened to of utilizing his historical past of compound abuse from him.
Heard’s attorneys also go through messages from Depp in which he reviewed his inebriation. In a 2014 information to a friend, Depp wrote that he was “so let down” in himself immediately after acquiring a battle with Read and ingesting.
Depp wrote in an additional concept, also from 2014, that he “drank all night prior to I picked up Amber” for a flight, expressing he had experienced no foodstuff for days and that he experienced experienced various styles of liquor and “powders.”
Asked whether “powder” referred to cocaine, Depp responded, “Sure.”
He described himself in the information as “offended, aggro,” and said he was “screaming obscenities” and in a “blackout.”
“I’m far too old to be that dude,” Depp wrote.
Depp formerly testified that he could not recall consuming much more than a glass or two of champagne on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles and insisted less than cross-examination that he did not recall becoming drunk. His text message explained he had two bottles of champagne.
“I experienced a glass of champagne, and I had taken a double dose of the narcotics, of the opiates,” Depp claimed Thursday, disputing his information. “Which is a very diverse matter from becoming drunk.”
Heard’s attorneys tried using to discredit Depp’s memory, concentrating on his account of a 2015 combat he and Read experienced in Australia.
Depp testified Wednesday that Heard sliced off the idea of his finger in a home that was rented as he filmed the fifth “Pirates of Caribbean” film. He alleged that Read threw a bottle of vodka at the wall and that it shattered, chopping off the leading of his middle finger.
Afterward, Depp instructed the court, he was in the midst of a “anxious breakdown” and wrote in his blood on the walls. He also admitted during cross-evaluation to getting dipped his finger in paint.
Heard’s law firm requested whether Depp recalled drawing male genitalia on a painting and whether he could have been blacked out after Depp said he did not remember it.
“This was no blackout. … It was shock,” Depp responded.
Depp was also questioned about correspondence with his health care provider. Depp beforehand testified that he lied in the crisis room but explained to his personal doctor that Heard was the reason for his harm.
“When you say to an individual, ‘I’ve chopped my finger off,’ which is just heading straight to the point,” Depp said. “You never get into she did this, I did that. … My finger’s been chopped off.”
Depp is suing Listened to more than an essay she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018, in which she reported she had develop into a “public figure symbolizing domestic abuse.” Though the write-up never mentions Depp by title, his attorneys mentioned it indirectly refers to allegations she built against him for the duration of their 2016 divorce.
“When the allegations had been speedily circling the globe, telling persons that I was a, a drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat girls — all of a sudden in my 50s — it is about,” Depp explained. “You’re carried out.”
On the witness stand, Depp painted a photograph of Listened to as an individual who started off off as his ideal spouse but turned hostile about a year and a fifty percent into their marriage.
In accordance to Depp’s account, Read would choose fights and escalate them with demeaning language. He also stated she would sometimes “strike out,” whether or not it was a slap or a shove, or toss something at him.
As evidence, attorneys for Depp presented shots of his injuries from what they alleged had been assaults by Listened to. Audio clips recorded all through their fights have been also performed.
Heard is alleged to notify Depp in one clip: “I was hitting you. I was not punching you.”
In courtroom filings right before the trial, Listened to claimed she hit Depp only in self-protection or in defense of her younger sister, according to The New York Occasions.
Depp also testified ahead of cross-assessment that his alcoholic beverages and drug use turned a position of contention in his relationship. He explained to the court that Listened to asked him to continue being sober, inspite of consuming drugs and liquor in his presence, and referred to him as a “monster” when he was inebriated.
Heard’s attorneys pushed again towards Depp under cross-examination, noting messages he wrote to various individuals referring to his intoxication as a “monster.”
“It really is possible that I may well have utilised that word, absolutely,” Depp explained.
Heard was granted a protecting buy in May perhaps 2016 soon after she alleged that Depp hit her in the confront with a cellphone. She offered evidence to the court — a image of a bruise to her confront — and claimed he pulled her hair, screamed at her and strike her repeatedly.
“During the entirety of our connection, Johnny Depp has been verbally and bodily abusive to me,” Read explained in a sworn declaration at the time.
She also reported she lived in panic of Depp, indicating he had a “short fuse” and terrorized her.
Depp testified that his typical tactic in arguments was to get rid of himself, normally by locking himself in a rest room. He reported it was a system he figured out escalating up with an abusive mom.
Depp, who has denied at any time owning struck Listened to, recounted his model of the May well 2016 cellphone incident Wednesday.
Depp mentioned the two ended up in his penthouse a working day after he named Heard to notify her that his mother experienced died and that he required to file for divorce.
Read wished to communicate, Depp claimed, so he went about to have a dialogue and acquire his possessions. They experienced not spoken for just about a month at that position, he reported.
Depp said Listened to was laughing at him with a friend on the telephone as he collecting his possessions.
“It was a challenging few of times, and I truly did not come to feel like I deserved that form of procedure,” Depp explained.
He took the cellphone, informed her buddy that Listened to was “all yours” and then “flung” it down onto the sofa prior to he walked absent to the kitchen, Depp informed the court.
CORRECTION (April 21, 2022, 10:08 a.m. ET): A former edition of this post misstated when Johnny Depp said Amber Heard grew to become hostile. It was a yr and a 50 % into their marriage he did not say they have been with each other a 12 months and a fifty percent.
If you or an individual you know is going through domestic violence, phone the Nationwide Domestic Violence hotline for assistance at (800) 799-Risk-free (7233), or go to www.thehotline.org for additional. States normally have domestic violence hotlines as nicely.