Johnny Depp’s lawyer grilled Amber Heard about the night her ex-husband suffered a severed fingertip in 2015 during a contentious cross-examination at their defamation trial Tuesday.
Lawyer Camille Vasquez, who is representing Depp, repeatedly pressed Heard about the sequence of events that occurred that night in Australia as she challenged the actress’ testimony at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Virginia.
Heard claims Depp injured his right middle finger when he smashed a telephone, while Depp claims his fingertip was severed when Heard hurled a bottle that struck his hand.
“I didn’t assault Johnny in Australia,” Heard, 36, said Tuesday. “I didn’t assault Johnny ever.”
Heard claimed during her testimony this month that Depp sexually assaulted her with a vodka bottle in Australia. On Tuesday, Vasquez asked Heard if she was claiming Depp held her down and assaulted her with the bottle after he severed his finger.
“I have never claimed that I can remember the exact sequence of these things,” Heard told the seven-person jury. “This was a multiday assault that took place over three horrible days. This was the worst thing (that) ever happened to me.”
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over an op-ed published in 2018 in which Heard called herself a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Depp isn’t named in the op-ed, but Heard had previously accused the actor of abuse, which he denies.
Heard said Tuesday that the statement describing herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse” wasn’t about Depp, but was “about what happened to me afterwards.”
She said Depp was “included” in another statement from her op-ed that reads, “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”
“It was a reference in general to a larger phenomenon,” Heard said. “Not just Johnny.”
Tuesday was the second day of cross-examination for Heard, who completed her three-day direct testimony on Monday.
Heard and Depp met while making the 2011 film “The Rum Diary,” and married in 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year.
Vasquez asked Heard about multiple alleged incidents during Tuesday’s hearing, and questioned why Heard gifted Depp with a knife in 2012. Heard asserts Depp abused her during that year and was in and out sobriety, but claims there were stretches that Depp wasn’t violent.
“I wasn’t worried he was going to stab me when I gave it to him, that’s for certain,” Heard said.
The trial began in mid-April and is now in its fifth week, with closing arguments expected to take place May 27. The trial went on a one-week hiatus last week due to a judicial conference.
Depp, 58, contended during his testimony last month that he never struck Heard or any other woman, and accused Heard of frequently becoming violent toward him during their relationship.
The “Sweeney Todd” actor claimed the argument in Australia began after Heard saw him drinking alcohol for the first time in a while, and escalated to her throwing two bottles at him, the second of which allegedly hit his hand.
“I was looking directly at my bone sticking out and the meaty portion of the inside of your finger, and blood was just pouring out,” Depp said in April.
Heard claimed Monday that Depp’s abuse began in 2012. She said one incident occurred in April 2016 during an argument about Depp being late to her 30th birthday party.
“He grabbed me by the pubic bone, pubic area,” Heard claimed. “As best I can describe it is he kind of just pushed me down, held me down by it, and kind of pulled me into it. He was asking me, kind of taunting me, asking me if I thought I was so f—ing tough. ‘You think you’re such a f—ing tough guy, huh? ... Tough like a man now?’ That happened for a bit of time.”
On Tuesday, Heard denied punching Depp in bed that night.
Vasquez also presented love notes Heard wrote for Depp to the jury.
“I tried everything,” Heard told the jury. “I tried apologizing. I tried reading. I tried (a) therapist. I tried everything to fix it.”
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