Depp lawyer questions Heard about medicine, love notes in defamation case By Reuters

By Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Johnny Depp’s lawyer grilled the actor’s ex-wife Amber Heard on Tuesday, producing affectionate notes she wrote throughout their short-lived marriage to problem her accounts of frequent violence and bolster the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star’s case for defamation.

Depp, 58, is suing Heard for $50 million, saying she defamed him when she claimed she was a sufferer of home abuse. He has testified that he by no means hit Heard and argued that she was the abuser of their relationship.

Throughout her cross-examination, Depp lawyer Camille Vasquez confirmed jurors a knife Heard purchased Depp as a present in 2012. Heard, greatest identified for her function in “Aquaman,” stated Depp had already turned violent by then and infrequently lashed out at her when he was drunk or utilizing medicine.

“That is the knife you gave to the person who would get drunk and violent towards you?” Vasquez stated to Heard, who responded that she didn’t suppose he would stab her with it.

Heard, 36, has countersued Depp for $100 million, arguing that Depp smeared her by calling her a liar. She stated she solely hit Depp to defend herself or her sister.

On Tuesday, Depp’s lawyer learn entries from a journal that Heard stated the couple stored to share love notes.

“Real love is not about simply the insanity of ardour or as an alternative choosing the protection of peace. No, it is about each,” Heard wrote in Could 2015, two months after an argument wherein the highest of Depp’s proper center finger was reduce off.

“I nonetheless, maybe greater than ever, wish to rip you aside, devour you and savor the style,” she added.

Depp has stated Heard threw a vodka bottle that injured his finger, whereas Heard stated it was seemingly Depp harmed himself when he smashed a cellphone into “smithereens.”

In one other journal excerpt, after their July 2015 honeymoon aboard the Orient Categorical, Heard stated she “could not think about a extra attractive honeymoon,” and added, “I like you increasingly each passing day.”

Heard had informed jurors on Monday that Depp assaulted her and wrapped a T-shirt round her neck through the journey.

Requested about entries, Heard stated she tried to “nurture as a lot peace” as doable, and that “when issues have been good they have been actually good.”

Vasquez additionally confirmed jurors a proposed schedule for her marriage ceremony to Depp. The agenda included time for a “dance celebration and medicines and music” after the rehearsal dinner.

“You deliberate to have medicine at your marriage ceremony to somebody you characterize as a drug addict?” Vasquez requested.

Heard stated the schedule was a draft that underwent modifications.

The actors wed in February 2015 and their divorce was finalized about two years later.

The authorized case facilities on a December 2018 opinion piece by Heard that appeared within the Washington Put up. The article by no means talked about Depp by title, however his lawyer informed jurors it was clear that Heard was referencing him.

Depp, as soon as amongst Hollywood’s largest stars, stated Heard’s allegations price him “every part.” A brand new “Pirates of the Caribbean” film was placed on maintain, and Depp was changed within the “Implausible Beasts” movie franchise, a “Harry Potter” spinoff.

Heard’s attorneys have argued that she informed the reality and that her opinion was protected free speech beneath the U.S. Structure’s First Modification.

Lower than two years in the past, Depp misplaced a libel case in opposition to the Solar, a British tabloid that labeled him a “spouse beater.” A London Excessive Court docket choose dominated that he had repeatedly assaulted Heard.

Depp’s attorneys filed the case in Fairfax County, Virginia, as a result of the Washington Put up is printed there. The newspaper shouldn’t be a defendant.