FAFAX, Virginia (AP) – There’s not much room for middle ground in the testimony so far from Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in Depp’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife.
One of them is lying.
Hurd has not yet finished telling the jury her side of things. Her testimony will continue on May 16, after the trial – which has already lasted four weeks – resumed after a one-week break. She will then face what can be safely assumed to be an aggressive cross-examination in a case where both sides have used scorched earth tactics dating back years to when the case was first brought.
Depp is suing Hurd in Virginia for defamation over an article she wrote in December 2018 in The Washington Post, describing herself as a “public figure representing domestic violence.” The article does not mention Depp by name, but his lawyers say the article slanders him nonetheless because it is a clear reference to Hurd’s high-profile allegations when she filed for divorce in 2016 and received a temporary restraining order against him.
Depp says he never mistreated Hurd, while Hurd says she has been attacked more than a dozen times.
Below are synopses of several incidents and their various narratives.
THE FIRST TIME
Hurd says the first time Depp hit her was in 2013, when she made the mistake of laughing at one of his tattoos. Hurd said she had an older tattoo she couldn’t tell, and Depp told her it said “Wine.”
In fact, it was called Winona Forever, a tattoo Depp got when he met actor Winona Ryder. He changed it to Wino Forever when they broke up.
Hurd said he laughed, and Depp slapped her. Thinking that the slap must be a joke, she laughed. Depp responded by hitting her twice more, and the third slap upset Hurd.
“It was so stupid, so insignificant,” Hurd told the jury. “I thought it must be a joke.”
Depp, while on the stand, flatly denied it had happened.
“It didn’t happen,” he said. “Why would I be so offended by someone who makes fun of a tattoo on my body? That statement never made any sense to me. “
THE FINGER AND THE BURBON BOTTLE
Both sides say the worst violence took place in Australia in March 2015, when Depp made his fifth film, Pirates of the Caribbean.
Hurd said Depp sexually assaulted her with a bottle of alcohol – for the first time on Thursday she identified a bottle of bourbon from Maker’s Mark as a violation tool after saying she saw a photo of the distinctively square bottle – as part of a rage fueled by alcohol. Hurd came to Australia after making his own film, and Depp immediately accused her of sleeping with her colleagues, she said.
Depp, for his part, says he was a victim of violence. He testified that Hurd was outraged by Depp’s lawyers’ efforts to get her to sign a post-marriage contract, and by the fact that Depp did not keep his promises of sobriety to satisfy Hurd.
He said he got out of the argument by pouring himself a drink, at which point Hurd threw a bottle of vodka at him. Depp said he responded by pouring another drink, and this time Hurd threw another bottle of vodka at him, which shattered in his hand as it lay on the counter and cut off the tip of his middle finger.
Photos from the show about the consequences Depp wrote vulgar messages to his wife with blood on the walls of the house. Jurors have also seen modern text messages sent from Depp to others in which he says he cut off his own finger. Depp said he made up the story to protect Hurd and avoid police intervention.
ALCOHOL AND DRUGS
Although not a specific incident, Depp and Hurd painted many different portraits of Depp’s drug and alcohol use.
Hurd said that drugs and alcohol – along with paranoid jealousy – were what turned him from the man she loved into the “monster” that made her fear for her life. She said he hid drug and alcohol use from her and his family, but his behavior clearly showed that he was strong or drunk, often to the point of inconsistency.
“Johnny for speed is very different from Johnny for opiates. “Johnny’s opiate is very different from Adderall and Cocaine’s Johnny, which is very different from Quaaludes Johnny, but I had to be good at paying attention to its different versions,” Hurd said.
In fact, Hurd Sis, Depp’s allegations of physical violence are not credible in part because he would go dark and forget what he did.
Depp, for his part, admitted that at one point he became addicted to oxycodone and underwent a detoxification process in 2014. But he said allegations of uncontrolled drug and alcohol use were highly embellished.
“I’ve always had a pretty good tolerance for alcohol,” he said. “I’ve never had a physical addiction to alcohol.”
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