Amber Heard has claimed that Johnny Depp ripped off her underwear and did a “cavity search” when he thought she had hid cocaine.
The defamation trial between Mr Depp and Ms Heard began on 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia following Mr Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019. Mr Depp is arguing that she defamed him in a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”.
Taking the stand on Wednseday, Ms Heard testified that she and Mr Depp was having a “party in the desert” with some friends, and “somebody brought MDMA”.
She said one woman “leaned into” her and put her “head on my shoulder”. Ms Heard said she “took it to be the effects of he drug”, adding that she had taken mushrooms. She went on to say that Mr Depp became upset but that others present initially took his actions as a “joke”.
“Hey man, do you think you’re touching my f***king girl,” Mr Depp said, according to Ms Heard.
She said Mr Depp grabbed the woman’s arm and asked, “do you know how many pounds of pressure it takes to break a human wrist?”
Ms Heard testified that she and Mr Depp walked to their trailer to talk.
She said that in the trailer, Mr Depp accused her of instigating the episode as well as lying about her relationship to the woman, who Ms Heard said she didn’t “really know”.
Ms Heard said Mr Depp then began “smashing” the trailer and “screaming” at her.
“It became clear he was looking for something,” Ms Heard said, adding that he asked her “where are you hiding it?” but that she didn’t know what he was referring to.
She said he started “patting me down”.
“He rips my dress ... he’s grabbing my breasts, he’s touching my thighs, he rips my underwear off,” Ms Heard said from the witness stand.
“He then proceeds to do a cavity search,” she added. “He said he was looking for his drugs, his cocaine.”
Ms Heard said she was against the cocaine use, and that insinuating that she “was doing it ... made no sense”.
She said he “shoved his fingers inside me”, adding that she “didn’t know what to do ... I just stood there”.
“He twisted his fingers around,” she said.
Heard lawyer Elaine Bredehoft later asked about the first time Ms Heard met Mr Depp’s children, Lily-Rose and Jack, in the summer of 2013.
Ms Heard said she was “dying” to get to know the kids. Not long after, Ms Heard said she and Mr Depp were on a flight to Russia, which was the “first and last time I ever decided it would be a decent idea to do drugs with Johnny”, she said.
She added that they took MDMA on the plane “which was as stupid as it may sound”. She said she was against Mr Depp’s cocaine use and drinking but that she was around 26 years old at the time, thought MDMA was a “lovey drug” and that she wanted to be the “fun girlfriend” at this time.
Ms Heard said she took one capsule, while Mr Depp took “several” and everything was “going fine” until a flight attendant became “involved”.
Mr Depp offered the attendant some MDMA who initially declined but in the end “acquiesced”, according to Ms Heard. She said the attendant leaned into Ms Heard’s seat when Mr Depp grabbed the woman’s arm, telling her not to touch Ms Heard.
Similar to the Hicksville episode, Mr Depp told the attendant he could break her wrist, Ms Heard testified.
“I don’t recall any violence on the plane ... but I remember feeling this tension,” she said, adding that Mr Depp was sensitive about Ms Heard and other women as she had previously had a female partner.
Ms Heard said Mr Depp was making accusations when they got to the hotel, and that he shoved her.
“At some point, Johnny whacks me in the face. I don’t remember feeling pain or awareness of my nose ... I just remember wanting him to realise what had happened,” she said.
In her 2018 op-ed, Ms Heard wrote that “like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim”.
“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she added at the time.
While Mr Depp isn’t 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 damages of “not less than $50m”.
Ms Heard has filed a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp for nuisance and immunity from his allegations.
