Amber Heard accuses her ex-husband Johnny Depp of serious physical violence in court. That’s how Johnny Depp is said to have beaten her while wearing a cast for a broken finger. Depp’s surgeon thinks that’s very unlikely.
In Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial, Judge Penney Azcarate on Tuesday denied Depp’s motion to dismiss his ex-wife’s counterclaim. There’s a reasonable chance Heard’s counterclaim could be upheld by a jury, Azcarate said, adding, “It’s not my job to measure the veracity or weight of the evidence.” Heard is suing Depp for $100 million, alleging his divorce attorney Adam Waldman defamed her and harmed her career by accusing her and her friends of “abuse fraud.”
Depp’s severed fingertip was also an issue again. Doctor David Kulber, who operated on Depp’s hand in March 2015, refuted an allegation by Heard that Depp grabbed and hit her despite a cast during an argument known as the “stairwell incident.” Depp broke his middle finger and lost soft tissue, Kulber said. The cast made it impossible for him to form a fist. When asked if Depp was able to grab someone and punch him, Kulber replied, “He could have tried (…) but I don’t know how successful he would have been.” Depp would have caused further damage to his hand and cast, which the surgeon would have noticed during the treatment.
Several experts then commented on testimonies from Heard’s witnesses about the alleged implications of Waldman’s claims against the actress. Entertainment consultant Katheryn Arnold reported Monday that Heard lost up to $50 million in job opportunities because of Depp and Waldman. The producer said her role in the hit DC blockbuster “Aquaman” should have boosted the actress’ career and Heard’s potential career path with those of action stars like Jason Momoa (“Aquaman”), Gal Gadot (“Wonder Woman”) and compared to Zendaya (“Spider-Man”).
In a video statement, Walter Hamada, who is responsible for the superhero films in the DC series at Warner Brothers, now denied Arnold’s statements. Accordingly, Heard’s lawsuit had no impact on her role in “Aquaman 2”. Although there were “talks about a possible replacement”, this was due to concerns about the chemistry between Heard and leading actor Jason Momoa. Entertainment law expert Richard Marks, brought in by Depp’s legal team, called Arnold’s assessments “extremely speculative” because the actors Arnold compared Heard to were the stars of their respective superhero films. Economic damage expert Michael Spindler also called Kathryn Arnold’s analysis “insufficiently documented” and “inappropriate”.
Doug Bania, an expert in social media analysis, also testified again for Johnny Depp. He disagreed with fellow professional Ron Schnell, who claimed last week that there was a connection between statements by Depp’s divorce attorney and negative sentiment towards Heard on Twitter in the form of hashtags. 35 percent of the negative tweets about Heard were written before Waldman said anything, Bania said. He also showed that the use of the hashtag “Justice for Johnny Depp”, which Schnell had listed among other things, actually decreased during the period analyzed. A claim for damages by Heard is out of the question because there is no causality, was Bania’s conclusion.
Forensic psychiatrist Richard Shaw, meanwhile, was asked for his opinion on Monday’s testimony by his fellow practitioner David Spiegel. Among other things, he had accused Depp of “narcissistic traits” and called him an “idiot”. Shaw accused Spiegel of violating the ethical principles related to the Goldwater Rule, which states that psychiatrists may not make professional judgments about public figures that they have not personally examined. Against this background, Spiegel’s assessment of Depp was inadmissible, Shaw said.
Morgan Night delivered the most surprising appearance as a witness for Johnny Depp. The former Hicksville Trailer Palace owner, who was treated multiple times in the trial, was allowed to testify despite a recent tweet calling Amber Heard “jealous and insane.” After stating under oath that he had not previously followed the trial, Night was allowed to take the witness stand. He recounted Depp and Heard’s visit to his luxury trailer park in 2013, during which Depp allegedly vandalized a trailer and conducted a “body search” on Heard.
Night testified that he noticed that Heard was pissed off, otherwise everyone would have had a good time around the campfire. When he later talked to Depp in detail, Heard joined them. Both were drunk. “She started yelling at him,” Night recalled. “I didn’t want to hear it, honestly, because it really triggered me. I used to be in emotionally abusive relationships.” Depp “crouched” in front of Heard and seemed almost “fearful”. The actor later apologized to him, saying he seemed “less extroverted” than before. Night later heard a commotion in Heard and Depp’s trailer. The next morning a lamp hanging on the wall was broken, but that was the only damage.
Jennifer Howell, the former boss and roommate of Heard’s younger sister, Whitney Henríquez, also testified in pre-recorded video. Henriquez also recently commented on the “stairwell incident,” claiming that Depp first hit her and then attacked Heard. However, Howell accused Henriquez of lying. In a 2020 email shown to the jury, she asked the 34-year-old to “tell the truth.” Henríquez “loves” Heard and is trying to “protect her sister,” Howell said, but she is doing “something very wrong” by supporting the abuse allegations against Depp. Shortly before the video testimony was abruptly cut short, Howell also reported receiving an anonymous check for $250,000 for her nonprofit around 2018, which said it was in honor of Ms. Heard. There are indications that the anonymous donor was Heard’s ex-boyfriend Elon Musk.
Howell previously denied Henríquez’s allegations in Johnny Depp’s The Sun libel suit. The producer said she learned from Henriquez that Heard was “extremely violent” and that she couldn’t understand why Depp “put up with Amber’s abuse.” About the staircase argument, Henriquez told her “that she tried to stop Amber from attacking Johnny. Whitney said when she tried to intervene, Amber nearly pushed Whitney down the stairs. She told me she was worried Amber would become Johnny kill.” Howell also testified in London how Henriquez admitted to her that Heard Depp severed a fingertip in Australia.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2009. They celebrated their wedding in early February 2015, and Heard filed for divorce at the end of May 2016, which was finalized in early 2017. After Depp’s lost defamation lawsuit in Great Britain in 2021 against the newspaper “The Sun”, which had described him as a “wife beater”, the US trial started in April. Closing speeches are expected on May 27th.
