Feature image credit: NBC News
Two months ago, we witnessed the drama-packed defamation trial of Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard over an article in The Washington Post. A jury ruled that Heard had intentionally and maliciously defamed Depp.
Now, two months later, Depp’s fans — ever the enthusiastic bunch — decided to pay USD 3,000 to gain access to unsealed pre-trial court documents. As such, more than 6,000 pages of documents are now available to the public.
Just as we thought that things couldn’t get any more bizarre, there’s this.
Here is the TL;DR of the contents.
1) Heard’s team tried to include evidence that Depp has erectile dysfunction
Heard’s team submitted Depp’s medication list as evidence. The list included Valtrex, which suggests that Depp suffers from erectile dysfunction and herpes. The Depp camp argued that this was an attempt to “take this trial down a number of unnecessarily salacious rabbit holes”.
However, Heard’s team insisted that Depp’s erectile dysfunction was relevant to Heard’s unsettling allegation that Depp had raped her with a liquor bottle. They argued that Depp’s erectile dysfunction made it more probable that he was agitated and resorted to using a bottle on Heard.
2) Depp’s team tried to include Heard’s nudes
Depp’s team tried to include Heard’s nudes. They also introduce information about Heard’s brief stint as an exotic dancer years before she met Depp. According to Heard’s team, they were trying to imply that Heard was at one time an escort.
Heard’s lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, argued that allowing either of the two was “highly distracting and unfairly prejudicial to the extent they portray Amber Heard as a sex symbol instead of a women’s rights activist against domestic abuse.”
On top of that, the Depp camp also submitted Heard’s sister Whitney Henriquez’s reality show video, as well as information about Heard and Henriquez’s past romantic relationships.
3) Depp’s team fought hard to keep disturbing texts between Depp and Marilyn Manson out of the trial
Heard’s team submitted a text exchange between Depp and his longtime friend Marilyn Manson into evidence. Manson has taken a page out of Depp’s book and is currently suing his ex-girlfriend, actress Evan Rachel Wood for defamation after she accused him of grooming and sexual abuse.
In the text exchange that has been leaked, Manson mentioned a woman named Lindsay (his current wife is named Lindsay Usich), and said that he had an “amber 2:0 situation”. He texted that Usich had “pulled an amber” by seeking a restraining order. Heard had filed a restraining order after filing for divorce from Depp.
Manson wrote in another text, “I got a serious police amber type scenario with L’s family. I’m f—ing stressing. I don’t know if you are back but I need asylum somewhere because I think the cops might be headed my way.”
In yet another text message, Manson wrote to Depp, “My new fan meet and greet the girl. Looks like you need it. Trust me. I’ll send a pic. 18.”
Depp’s team argued that to include those messages was an unfair attempt to paint Depp as guilty by association.
4) Depp’s team tried to use the death of Heard’s friend against her
In an interview with Heard’s sister Whitney Henriquez, Depp’s attorneys asked about a person named Logan. Logan was Heard’s friend who had passed away in a car accident as a teenager. The incident had deeply affected Heard.
Depp’s legal team tried to insinuate that Heard was driving the car during the accident when Logan died, to which Henriquez denied. The legal team continued to ask if Heard’s driving license was suspended because of the accident, to which Henriquez also denied.
5) Depp’s missing texts about kicking Heard
Depp’s assistant at the time, Stephen Deuters, had texted Heard in 2014 about Depp, saying, “If someone was truly honest with him about how bad it really was, he would be appalled. I’m sad he does not have a better way to know the severity of his actions yesterday. Unfortunately for me, I remember them in full, in full detail, everything that happened. He was appalled, when I told him he kicked you, he cried.”
Depp later texted Heard, “Once again, I find myself in a place of shame and regret. Of course, I am sorry… I will never do it again… My illness somehow crept up and grabbed me… I feel so bad for letting you down.”
Yet somehow, Depp’s team declared the text “missing”.
These text messages were included in the U.K. trial.
6) Depp’s team fought to keep testimonies out of the trial
Heard’s legal team included a list of expert witnesses, but Depp’s team tried hard to block them.
- Elaine Barkin testified that Depp had thrown a bottle in her direction during a fight while they were dating in the 90s, but Depp’s team urged the court to block her testimony.
- The inflammatory texts between Depp and his actor friend Paul Bettany in which the former talked about drowning and burning Heard, writing, “I will f—k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.” Depp’s team tried to block this too, saying that it was nothing more than dark humour.
- Dr David Spiegel and Dr Dawn M. Hughes, both psychiatrists, the latter of whom had conducted 29 hours worth of sessions with Heard and diagnosed her with PTSD; Dr Amy Banks, a relationship consultant who met with the couple and believed Heard to have suffered domestic violence by Depp; Julian Ackert, a forensic expert who suggested that the audio and photo files submitted as evidence by Depp had signs of being manipulated, altered, and deleted — Depp’s team tried to block them all.
There is not everything — there were 6,000 pages, after all — but they were among the most gripping.
While these documents are unlikely to change the verdict, they certainly give us food for thought.
This author’s thought: there were a lot of d*ck moves.
Chow Ping Lee is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
