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Amber Heard was fighting with one of Johnny Depp’s lawyers as she was grilled over Kate Moss and other witnesses who supported him.
Ms Heard returned to the stand on Thursday as the final witness for her rebuttal, speaking about the toll the trial has taken on her as she was “harassed, humiliated and threatened” by Mr Depp’s fans on a daily basis.
She then faced intense cross-examination from Mr Depp’s lawyer, Camille Vasquez, who began the cross-examination by claiming that the trial had been tough because her “lies were exposed to the world multiple times, right?”.
“I haven’t lied about anything I wanted to say here,” Ms. Heard replied.
Inquiring about Ms Heard’s claims about an incident involving Mr Depp at the Hicksville trailer park in 2013, Ms Vasquez found that her own witness Raquel “Rocky” Pennington, a previously close friend, did not support her claim that Mr Depp was jealous become and grabbed a woman by the wrist.
The manager of the trailer park where they were staying appeared in court on Monday. Ms Heard said she did not recognize the witness, claiming he “was not there” and that he would not know what happened privately. Ms Heard denied she was the one who was jealous.
Ms Vasquez then turned to Ms Heard’s claim that she had “no idea” the press would be out of court when she sought a restraining order against Mr Depp in May 2016.
“I said I had nothing to do with it,” Ms Heard replied.
Ms Vasquez said Ms Heard was “not shocked at all” when she met photographers as she left the courthouse because she knew they would be in attendance.
Ms Heard denied claims she alerted entertainment site TMZ that she would be at the courthouse.
She was then asked for testimony from a former TMZ employee, who said Wednesday he had received a tip from a verified source. When it was suggested it came from her team, Ms Heard pushed back.
“Absolutely not. Why would I want that? What domestic violence survivor wants that?” she said.
Ms Vasquez then asked Ms Heard about an incident in 2015 in which she said she punched Mr Depp in her sister’s defense while reflecting on how he had pushed his former partner Kate Moss down a flight of stairs.
“You didn’t expect Ms Moss to agree to testify that this never happened, did you?” Ms. Vasquez asked.
“Wrong,” Ms. Heard replied. “I know how many people would come out of the woodwork to support Johnny.”
“So you’re saying that Ms. Moss has to ‘get out of the woodwork’ to testify for Mr. Depp?” Ms. Vasquez asked.
Ms Heard said anyone who was “in the 90s and 2000s” heard the same rumor about Ms Moss and Mr Depp.
“Of course that went through my mind when my abusive husband swung for not only me but my sister as well,” Ms. Heard said.
She added that Ms Moss’ statement in support of Mr Depp “doesn’t change what I believed at the time we were on the stairs and I thought he was going to kill my sister”.
Amber Heard reminds jury ‘I’m human’ as she returns to stand (Michael Reynolds/AP)
(AP)
(AP)
British supermodel Kate Moss said the actor “never” pushed her down a flight of stairs, contrary to rumors Ms Heard referred to during her own testimony (Evelyn Hockstein/AP).
(AP)
The defamation trial between Mr. Depp and Ms. Heard began on April 11 in Fairfax, Virginia, following Mr. Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019. Mr. Depp argues that she defamed him in a comment published in December 2018 The Washington Post entitled “I spoke out against sexual violence – and faced the wrath of our culture. That needs to change.”
In her comment, Ms Heard wrote: “Like many women, I was molested and sexually assaulted when I was in college. But I said nothing – I didn’t expect that filing complaints would bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim.”
“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic violence, and I felt the full brunt of our culture’s anger at women speaking out,” she added at the time.
While Mr Depp is not named in the piece, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”. Mr Depp is seeking “not less than $50 million” in damages.
Ms Heard has filed a $100 million counterclaim against Mr Depp for harassment and immunity from his allegations.
The closing arguments will take place on Friday (May 27), after which the jury will be sent out to deliberate.
