HEARD THE LAST OF HER — ON STAND
Ends testimony after four days, says Depp lies about assaults
Amber Heard’s four days of testimony came to an end Tuesday with the actress proclaiming ex-husband Johnny Depp is “lying” in his $50 million defamation trial against her.
The bruising blast followed a contentious cross-examination at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Virginia, during which Depp’s lawyer, Camille Vasquez, grilled Heard about her sexual assault accusation against Depp, and about a severed fingertip Depp sustained in 2015.
Heard claims Depp injured his right middle finger when he smashed a telephone in Australia; Depp claims his fingertip was severed when the actress hurled a bottle that struck his hand.
“I didn’t assault Johnny in Australia,” Heard, 36, insisted Tuesday. “I didn’t assault Johnny ever.”
Earlier in her testimony this month, Heard said Depp sexually assaulted her with a vodka bottle in Australia. On Tuesday, Vasquez asked Heard if she was claiming Depp held her down and assaulted her with the bottle after he severed his finger.
“I have never claimed that I can remember the exact sequence of these things,” Heard told the seven-person jury. “This was a multiday assault that took place over three horrible days. This was the worst thing [that] ever happened to me.”
Asked later if she struck Depp multiple times during their relationship, Heard said she often felt the need to defend herself.
“There were many times I had to use my body to defend myself, and that included swinging wherever I could. If it meant I could get away, absolutely. If it meant a difference between a sore face and a broken nose, you bet I would.”
Depp is suing Heard over an op-ed published in 2018 by the Washington Post in which Heard called herself a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Depp isn’t named in the op-ed, but Heard had previously accused the actor of abuse, which he denies.
On Tuesday, Heard said the statement describing herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse” wasn’t about Depp, but was “about what happened to me afterward.”
She said Depp was “included” in another statement from her op-ed that reads, “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”
“It was a reference in general to a larger phenomenon,” Heard said. “Not just Johnny.”
Tuesday was Heard’s second day of cross-examination. Vasquez concluded her cross-examination in the afternoon and Heard’s lawyer briefly questioned her client before Heard stepped down from the stand.
Heard claimed Depp has refused to look at her throughout the trial “because he’s guilty.”
“He knows he’s lying,” Heard said. “Otherwise why can’t he look at me? I survived. I survived that man, and I’m here, and I’m able to look at him.”
Heard also claimed Depp gave her a note reading “I’ll love you forever,” along with his new phone number, during their divorce mediation.
Depp and Heard met while making the 2011 film “The Rum Diary” and married in 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year and was granted a temporary restraining order.
The trial began in mid-April and is now in its fifth week. Closing arguments are expected to take place May 27.
Depp, 58, contended during his testimony last month that he never struck Heard, and accused her of frequently becoming violent toward him.
The “Sweeney Todd” actor said their argument in Australia involved Heard throwing two bottles at him, the second of which he said hit his hand.
“I was looking directly at my bone sticking out and the meaty portion of the inside of your finger, and blood was just pouring out,” Depp said in April.
Heard said Monday that Depp’s abuse began in 2012. When Vasquez asked Tuesday why Heard gifted Depp with a knife that year, Heard claimed the actor was in and out of sobriety that year and said there were stretches where Depp wasn’t violent.
“I wasn’t worried he was going to stab me when I gave it to him, that’s for certain,” Heard said.
Vasquez also presented to the jury love notes that Heard wrote Depp.
“I tried everything,” Heard said in response. “I tried apologizing. I tried reading. I tried [a] therapist. I tried everything to fix it.”