Amber Heard’s former assistant Kate James testified on Thursday (14 April) in the defamation case opposing Johnny Depp and Heard in Virginia.
She was asked about a text allegedly sent by Depp to James in August 2016, reading, according to the transcript introduced as evidence: “Thank you, sweetheart... I’m disgusted that I ever f*****’ touched that scum... Back on Tuesday!!! And then... Court!!! Will hit you when I get back, doll... Come over for a spot of purple and we’ll fix her flabby a**, nice and good!!! Loveth... J.”
It was suggested during questioning that “a spot of purple” was a way of referring to red wine.
Asked whether James understood the text to be referring to Heard, James first said it wasn’t for her to speculate.
She was then asked about previous testimony she gave during the 2020 trial between Depp and The Sun in the UK, during which she was asked whether the text was about Heard. On that occasion, she replied, according to a transcript read as evidence in Virginia: “Yes. Yes.”
In her latest testimony, which was shared on Thursday as a video recording, James said on that occasion, she had been “just trying to be agreeable in the court, having no clue what on earth is going on”.
Asked whether the answer she gave in the UK was truthful or whether she was just being agreeable, James said: “Just being agreeable.”
James’s testimony took place the day after Depp’s longtime friend Isaac Baruch testified as a witness and was asked about other texts.
On Wednesday (14 April), Baruch was asked by Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft: “Do you recall Mr Depp ever telling you that he hoped that Amber Heard’s rotting corpse is decomposing in the f*****g trunk of a Honda Civic?”
Baruch pointed to a monitor on which the message was displayed and said: “Yeah. Well, I say yeah – I’m seeing it here, so obviously, yeah, it was said. It was written.”
Bredehoft then asked him whether Depp had referred to Heard as a “c**t” over text.
“Well, it’s written there, so yeah, I could see that,” Baruch said, also reading from a monitor in front of him. Disputing Bredehoft’s specific characterization of Depp’s words, he added: “That’s not what he says – he says: ‘That c**t ruined such a f*****g cool life we had for a while.’”
Depp has sued Heard for alleged defamation over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018. Heard has filed a countersuit accusing Depp of allegedly orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his own lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment.”
The Virginia trial started on Monday (11 April) and is expected to last for six weeks.
