Amber Heard: I ‘Stand by Every Word’ of Testimony in Defamation Trial

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Nearly two weeks after dropping a high-profile defamation trial, Amber Heard stated in a tv interview on Tuesday that she had instructed the reality on the stand about her accusations of abuse in opposition to her ex-husband, Johnny Depp. She additionally took problem with the choose’s dealing with of proof that she stated helps show her account of the connection.

Ms. Heard instructed NBC’s “At this time” present that she is going to “stand by each phrase” of her testimony to her “dying day.” She alleged repeated bodily abuse by Mr. Depp, in addition to a number of cases of sexual abuse, all of which Mr. Depp denied.

In her first public interview because the jury verdict in Fairfax, Va., Ms. Heard acknowledged that she was answerable for “horrible, regrettable” habits towards Mr. Depp, together with demeaning insults that have been aired in court docket, however maintained that any bodily violence on her half was in response to his personal. Mr. Depp testified that Ms. Heard was violent towards him, and never the opposite means round.

“I behaved in horrible — nearly unrecognizable to myself — methods,” Ms. Heard stated. “It was very, very poisonous. We have been terrible to one another.”

However, she asserted, “I’ve all the time instructed the reality.”

Ms. Heard, 36, misplaced the defamation case that Mr. Depp filed in opposition to her, alleging that she had “devastated” his profession after The Washington Submit printed an op-ed wherein she known as herself a “public determine representing home abuse.” The article didn’t point out Mr. Depp by title, however he and his attorneys argued that it was clearly referring to a time in 2016 wherein Ms. Heard instructed a court docket that Mr. Depp was bodily abusive towards her.

The $10.35 million award to Mr. Depp was offset by a $2 million award for Ms. Heard. The jury discovered that Mr. Depp had defamed Ms. Heard in a single occasion, when a lawyer who had beforehand represented him throughout the defamation proceedings made a press release to a British tabloid accusing her of damaging the couple’s penthouse and blaming it on Mr. Depp.

A lawyer for Ms. Heard, Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, has stated she plans to attraction the decision.

The six-week trial became an web obsession fueled by courtroom sound bites made accessible by a pair of cameras filming the proceedings for livestreams and tv broadcasts. Ms. Heard was on the receiving finish of a lot of the net vitriol, with Depp followers mocking her testimony and calling her a liar.

“Even in the event you suppose that I’m mendacity, you continue to couldn’t inform me — look me within the eye and inform me — that you just suppose on social media there’s been a good illustration,” Ms. Heard stated within the NBC interview, extra of which can air later this week. She added that she had “by no means felt extra faraway from my very own humanity.”

Within the days after the decision, Ms. Heard’s authorized workforce has argued that it will have been not possible for the jury, which was unsequestered, to utterly protect themselves from the social media bias in opposition to their consumer.

Ms. Heard stated there had been “actually necessary items of proof” {that a} choose stored out of the Virginia trial, a few of which have been allowed in a separate trial in London. In that case, Mr. Depp sued when The Solar newspaper known as him a “spouse beater” in a headline. Mr. Depp misplaced that case, and the British choose was persuaded that Mr. Depp had bodily abused Ms. Heard repeatedly all through their relationship.

For instance, a sequence of textual content messages from Mr. Depp’s former private assistant, Stephen Deuters, was admitted within the British trial however not the U.S. one. In one of many messages, that are from 2014, Mr. Deuters wrote to Ms. Heard that Mr. Depp had cried when Mr. Deuters instructed him that Mr. Depp had “kicked” Ms. Heard. He had been referring to an incident on a personal aircraft wherein, Ms. Heard has testified, Mr. Depp kicked her within the again earlier than passing out within the rest room whereas intoxicated. Within the London trial, Mr. Deuters denied that Mr. Depp had kicked Ms. Heard, saying he wrote that textual content message to mollify her.

The choose in Virginia additionally denied the admission of a psychotherapist’s notes, from 2015, wherein the psychotherapist documented that Ms. Heard texted him, “Johnny did a quantity on me tonight” and requested for assist. In that incident, Ms. Heard testified, Mr. Depp head-butted her and tore out clumps of her hair — which Mr. Depp denied. The British choose cited these notes in his resolution.

In an interview with “At this time” final week, a lawyer for Mr. Depp, Benjamin Chew, stated the proof that ought to have been admitted was admitted and that “the choose was very reasonable to each side.” Camille Vasquez, one other lawyer for Mr. Depp, took problem with the suggestion that the jury had been influenced by social media, saying that the had reminded them each night of the trial to keep away from any media in regards to the case.

Requested on the “At this time” present whether or not Mr. Depp had a greater authorized workforce than she did, Ms. Heard replied, “His attorneys did definitely a greater job of distracting the jury from the actual points.”

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