Depp accused of domestic violence
Actress Amber Heard has been granted a restraining order against husband Johnny Depp after appearing at a Los Angeles courthouse yesterday with a bruised face and alleging the actor physically abused her prior to her filing for divorce on Tuesday.
Though the judge granted Heard a temporary restraining order that requires Depp to stay 100 yards away from her until a further hearing next month, several of Heard’s additional requests were denied, including spousal support and an order to protect one of the couple’s dogs from Depp, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Photographs of the actress with what appears to be a bruise surrounding her right eye and damage inside the couple’s downtown loft were submitted with the request.
Los Angeles police officers went to the couple’s loft last Sunday after receiving information from police in New York, said Captain Don Graham, who oversees the LAPD’s Central Division. A woman had called New York police, saying ‘‘her friend Amber in LA was in a domestic dispute with her husband, Johnny Depp’’, he said.
When the officers arrived at the loft, they spoke with Heard, who was alone, Graham said. ‘‘At the time, there was no evidence’’ of a crime, he added, and Heard told the officers it was a ‘‘verbal dispute only’’.
An LAPD spokesman said there was no active investigation into Depp, and no crime involving the actor had been reported to police.
Depp performed with his band Hollywood Vampires at the Rock in Rio music festival in Lisbon, Portugal yesterday. Before the performance, he and the other band members, including Alice Cooper, fitted and adjusted hearing aids on an elderly woman as part of an initiative with a group that provides hearing aids to impoverished people worldwide.
Depp has evolved into one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars thanks to the moody, quixotic characters he has played in juggernaut Disney franchises. A spokeswoman for Disney declined to comment on the actor’s recent personal issues.
Heard, 30, and Depp began dating in 2012, after meeting during the filming of 2011’s The Rum Diary, based on the Hunter S Thompson novel of the same name. That year, Depp separated from his girlfriend of 14 years, French singer Vanessa Paradis, with whom the Academy Award nominee has two children.
Depp, 52, married Heard in February 2015, after they had dated for three years.
The couple made headlines recently for the stilted apology video they made for the Australian government about declaring living things when entering the country, after Heard was charged for providing false documentation for her dogs when entering Australia in May 2015.
Representatives for Depp and Heard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.