Amber Heard Witnesses Made Waves, but Will Johnny Depp Recover in Defamation Trial? - The Daily Beast

Amber Heard spent two days on the stand last week describing how a relationship she thought was a fairytale quickly dissolved after Depp repeatedly verbally and physically attacked her.

Suddenly, Heard testified, Depp slapped her across the face and punched her in the jaw in a blind rage after a woman that appeared to be her participated in a sex scene.

But that woman was a body double, not Heard, the actress said.

Kimberly Lau, a New York defamation lawyer, noted to The Daily Beast that this instance is a prime example of Heard’s claims that Depp was abusing her, and the more instances she can cite of alleged abuse, the better her argument will be.

Heard’s allegations were only bolstered by testimony from Depp’s former agent, Tracy Jacobs, who said via video deposition that the actor’s disdain for the film was so severe that he even tried to shut down production.

On the stand last week, Henriquez testified that she witnessed a fight between Heard and Depp on March 23, 2015, after Heard came into her room to allege that her then-husband was cheating on her.

“I’m at the back of the stairs, with my back to the stairs, and that’s when Johnny runs up the stairs,” Henriquez said about the incident.

“By that time, Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly in the face with the other while I was standing there,” Henriquez said, adding that Depp’s security guard broke the couple apart before she escorted Heard back to her penthouse.

As they left, Henriquez said she could hear Depp calling them vulgar names, and “screaming like an animal.”.

Heard has previously admitted to hitting Depp during the same incident, though she said she did so to protect her sister.

Depp was giving as good as he got at that point,” McGivern said, adding that Heard tried to spit on the actor.

For Manny Arora, a criminal defense attorney who is currently representing Anna Delvey, the conflicting, detailed stories about the staircase incident will force jurors to simply decide whom they find more believable: Heard’s sister or Depp’s current bodyguard.

She said that during their relationship, Depp once sexually assaulted her while performing a “cavity search” in her vagina for cocaine and that he even used hard-to-obtain drugs like quaaludes.

In another harrowing instance, Heard said Depp repeatedly penetrated her with a liquor bottle during a three-day bender on a 2015 trip to Australia.

“He’s just a jealous man,” testified actress Ellen Barkin, who spoke via video deposition about her brief relationship with Depp that included getting a wine bottle tossed in her direction.

Bruce Witkin, a former longtime friend and bandmate of Depp’s, also said in a video deposition that Depp’s substance abuse was so severe that he recommended that the actor go to therapy and get sober.

“He laughed about it,” Henriquez said about the drugs, adding that Depp was known to partake in cocaine, weed, MDMA, and shrooms.

Tina Newman, a production executive at Walt Disney Studios, said via video deposition that she never saw any documents within the company that referred to Heard’s op-ed—and that it never played a role in their decisions around Depp

Joel Mandel, Depp’s former business manager who sat for a video deposition for Heard’s team under subpoena, also testified about how the actor’s lavish lifestyle grew as he landed big roles—and was, therefore, harder to sustain when he stopped getting them

He said that at one point, Depp spent $10,000 a day on his personal security guard—and spent the same amount monthly on nurses and doctors dedicated to his recovery

Eventually, Mandel said, it became difficult to even talk to Depp about his money problems

“His financial circumstances in 2015 had reached a point where I was extremely concerned and on a very regular basis was expressing that concern,” Mandel said