Thread by @nickwallis

Welcome to the longest queue so far outside Fairfax County Court, Virginia for the beginning of Week 3 of DeppvHeard. Johnny Depp’s cross-examination is expected to conclude today.

I am told the witness schedule for today is likely to be as follows (subject to change):

Johnny Depp
Ben King - house manager in Australia (who found the tip of JD’s finger) - in person.
Tara Roberts - island estate manager

Managed to spend the first part of today in court before diving out to do an as live for @5_News (on air now in the UK).

There was a 24 minute delay this morning before the jury filed in.

Then JD’s xe resumed - short audio clips were played in. Some were indistinct, but in...

… one AH states that JD can “put your fucking cigarettes out on someone else” to which JD says “shut up fat ass”
Ben Rottenborn, AH’s attorney noted that JD did not (on tape) deny putting a cig out on AH. In court JD did deny it.

Sometimes JD was only asked if he agreed what BR said was being heard on the tape. Sometimes he agreed, sometimes he disagreed. With the texts he was asked if the words in the text were the words in the text to which he agreed. Sometimes he was asked about the interpretation of..

… those words. In an early exchange much was made of the use of the word “bloodbath” after JD is heard saying “it’s just going to be a bloodbath like it was on the island” - the Disco Bloodbath text is brought up. It’s not clear why this specific point is being raised...

… but the overall attempt by AH’s attorney appears to be building up a picture of JD as a man whio uses violent language.

A 2016 text from JD sent to his agent says "she will hit the wall hard... four exclamation points I can only...

... hope that karma kicks in and takes the gift of breath from her”.
[sorry - those four exclamation points were read out - they are in the text as !!!! of course]
This led...

… to a testy exchange:

BR did i read that right?
JD you read that correctly sir
BR and this wasn't the first time you talked about amber hitting the wall hard -
JD hitting the wall hard…
BR … based on the accusation
JD i'm sorry i was talking - is that alright?...

… BR you've answered my question. we’ll take a look at the next exhibit
JD as long as you're happy, sir.

There is an exchange about texts between AH and JD in which JD appears to be upset at AH having a meeting.
29 Oct 2013:
AH I’m at a coffee meeting now, will be home soon
JD Holy crack whores, no goddam meetings. No movies. Why? Why do you deviate from our agreement? What...

… species of meeting. Fuck it, just tell me when you get home.

BR You didn’t want her to take the meeting that day, correct?
JD it seems as though we had an agreement to do something together. I’m asking what species of meeting. This is not necessarily an angry text...

… it’s just ‘why do you deviate from our agreement’ it’s not about her doing films. How do you think she got Aquaman, sir?

We go back to the text about cutting off his finger which again BR tries to paint as an admission that he did it. Depp asks why, as a guitarist, he would cut his finger off?

BR Just the way it was worded.
JD yes.

We go back to the drinking and drug taking…

After establishing that JD likes a drink and does take drugs we go back to a message JD wrote to Paige Heard 19 Aug 2014: “My dearest Paige, how unbelievably kind and pure your message was. I am beyond thankful to have you in my life. There is no luckier man on earth...

… to have the strength that Amber gives me. And the full support of each of you individually that I’ve gotten helps immeasurably. I don’t need to explain the horrors to you. You know as well as I. What you do need to know is that your daughter has risen far above the...

… nightmarish task of taking care of this poor old junkie. Never a second has gone by that she didn’t look out for me or have her eyes on me to make sure that I was okay. Why and words [?] are truly feeble in attempting to explain her heroism in a text. Suffice to say...

… that I have never met or loved a woman or a thing more. She has the strength of a thousand men, and that is due to no one or nothing but you, sweetheart. Thank you. I love you. Your son outlaw…”

BR did I read that correctly?
JD you did sir.

We wind up with BR focusing on the 2018 WaPo article.
JD says the negativity about him began in 2016 when AH got a TRO with the paps present
BR says lots of negative articles had been written about him before then. [hands them to the court]
JD calls them ‘a stack of hit...

… pieces.’
[we go through them. JD is being asked to agree what they say without being asked to comment on them]

We go back to the TRO. Which JD said meant he lost “nothing less than everything”
JD agrees
BR states he didn’t try to get the TRO lifet
JD no why would I
BR you didn’t have a divorce trial
JD no
BR you waited until 2018 to file a lawsuit against her

BR you only sued the author of the article AH
JD she made the statement. and I had the oppo to fight back
BR the only thing that this article states is that in 2016 AH made allegations of DV
JD …
BR and she got a restraining order against you
JD yes

BR in 2016 for the first time AH accused you of DV
JD correct.
BR no further questions

[this morning’s xe was more interesting for what wasn’t brought up (I guess either the sexual abuse allegation has been struck out or it’s going to come up during AH's testimony)]

[it was more a whistlestop tour through familiar ground]

Okay re-direct begins [ie JD’s attorney gets to pick up on some points]

JD describes his shock at reading the WaPo article. “It was clear that the more bad press, the more hit pieces that came out on me...

… the more of these stories of AH and her righteous… chase against me… it wasn’t stopping…. Once you’ve chewed on it for a couple of years it becomes pretty difficult to swallow any more. As it was completely untrue.”

A: how did you feel when you saw the op-ed for...

… the first time?
JD: hurt. it was a blinding hurt. It was like someone had hit me on the back of the head with a 2 by 4. I had no ability to speak prior to… because even if I’d done an interview to try to explain myself, it turned into a hit piece. So… my mouth was shut...

… and this was the opportunity where I thought something’s gotta be done… I couldn’t take it any more.”
A: when did you learn Disney was not going to re-cast you in the Pirates franchise?
JD: two or three days after

… felt it made him “guilty until proven innocent” and “betrayed” by the people he had worked hard for.

We go to an exhibit [804]. It is JD’s Disney contract for Pirates 4 and 5.

JD is asked about his other franchise films.
JD replies “Alice in Wonderland” but struggles to name another - apologises for not knowing what movies he’s been in.

[there is laughter in the court, the judge threatens those who laughed with removal]
After being asked again, JD remembers Fantastic Beasts.

He is asked about the other movies he was working on post 2018: Minimata, Waiting for the Barbarian and the Professor.

We go to the Bettany texts. JD felt an “instant connection” with him. Says he has a “dry, abstract, obtuse” sense of humour, which he liked.

Says the language in the texts between the two about AH “none of it was ever intended to be real” and he is “ashamed it has to be spread on the world like peanut butter”. "The text about burning AH is directly from Monty Python in a sketch about burning witches”...

"It’s irreverent and abstract humour”

How did PB get on with AH?
JD Abominable. AH despised PB because we got on so well. She saw him as a threat.

JD describes AH getting into an argument with PB - says AH started arguing over PB and it got a bit heated. PB’s 18yo son was present and he entered the conversation. Says AH "demeaned that young man to the point that he burst into tears and walked away and it was at that...

…. point that I had spoken to Ms Heard and said that… behaviour was unacceptable. You had no right to demean that boy. You cannot always be right. You should try being wrong some time because then you might learn something. I asked her to… I thought it were best that she...

… leave the island.”

[more explanation of what he means in other texts to JD]

JD now describing how he was being “demeaned, berated, judged” by AH “and treated like a lesser animal and treated as if I’m only surrounded by yes men and I’m a bad father…. these things were...

… endless. There was no call for them. It’s hard to understand why someone who is supposed to love you could be that cruel… you say ‘okay… I won’t fall for the argument, I won’t participate in the argument because I knew were it will go, into her circular pattern…

… of psychological abuse.”

JD is taken back to emails he sent with Stephen Deuters about being in his room with some whores and animals with blood and tracks everywhere. the poor bloke has to explain - “it’s a joke”

The Monster Communications come up again. we are taken to text to which AH is no party...

… in which the Monster is mentioned. He explains how the monster is several abstract concepts.

We get to lunch on a lengthy explanation of why there is no possible way that JD would have cut off his own finger, linked to his one true love (other than his children) which is playing the guitar. He finds it incredible that anyone could think he had cut off his own finger.

The judge finishes the morning session stating that she wants us back in court at 2.20pm ET - warns the spectators again for silence and says court will be running till 5.30pm today to make up for the lost half hour at the beginning of the day.

Also signals that we will be having our first live remote witness by the end of the day by saying she wants no distractions at the other end of the line.

We are back after lunch stil talking about JD’s injured finger.

Referring to his text about AH’s ambition. “I had become clear… she seemed to take more care and importance in going on auditions, going to the Met Ball or going to any sort of premiere or opening...

….”
[obj by BR sustained]
JD is taken to an audio recording where he referenced getting his finger cut off. He is played a different portion of the recording.
AH is having a go at JD for walking out on arguments. Saying that if he...

… does so it will make it worse.
JD “if you’re fucking throwing punches… “
AH “I’m not talking about throwing punches, I’m talking about an argument.”
JD: “Right. In arguments, you tend to throw punches.”
AH: “I’m talking about arguments. I’m not talking about the...

… times when it gets [?] physical. I’m talking about arguments. I’m talking about arguments. I’m talking about arguments… Earlier and earlier and earlier now you split. You take off right away. Yu dont’ deal with the issue, you don’t deal with the confrontation...

…and you split…. And then you do it for an undeterminate amount of time and then you do it without actually respecting me\it [?]…”

JD tells the court how he often withdrew himself from arguments because if he stayed they culminated in arguments such as the one that caused him to lose his finger.

We move onto the detox on the island which JD says he found impossible to work through with AH present. Says that

… when they returned AH reluctantly agreed to go and stay with her friends in a bungalow in the Beverley Hill Hotel at his expense. He went through the detox by himself in PH3 in the ECB for the next 5 or 6 days.

We go to the cupboard-smashing video.

JD cannot remember why he was upset that day. Speculates it was bad news about his mother’s health or his former business managers. But I do know it had nothing to do with AH. It was nothing to do with her before she came into the room.

JD’s attorney raises the...

… cigarette-stubbing audio and asks if he remembers it then she plays more audio of another argument in which AH is being sent to a couch and accuses him or throwing a cigarette at her.
“If I flicked ashes, and an ash got on her, but she’s certainly not screaming out in pain...

… as if a cigarette has been put out on her."

“That’s ludicrous."

22 May 2016 texts are brought up again. JD says he was preparing to leave for NY or in rehearsals with Hollywood Vampires. Taken to a 6.19pm text: “Nothing I have to say to you should elicit anything but a sense of ease” and asked what it meant.
“I was bringing up...

… what I’d spoken to her before which was a peaceful resolution to the problems… a peaceful private and quiet and calm divorce."

Another audio recording is heard of AH and JD arguing. It is mid-argument. JD is leaving. AH is berating him for leaving and asking him to stay. He wants to leave. She suggests he needs to do it properly and to take off his ring. He does and throws it on the floor.

The argument goes on.

AH: we don’t ahve to do this every time we disagree
JD: no we don’t, but we do.
…
AH l love you!
…
JD “Going to smack me round the ear again? Going to smack my ear again? So it resounds in my fucking cranium. Wouldyou like that? No?”
AH: “No."

It’s a long clip. The previous last tweet was just a taster.

We are taken to another clip which we heard earlier today where the word bloodbath is raised - JD is taken to task for walking out of arguments. He says he refused to fight with her.

We are played another recording - she says that by walking away it causes her immense stress.

AH shouts “Stop pushing me. Stop pushing me into a corner and then poking me with a stick and then saying why are you using the words you want me to say. Stop poking me, stop...

… pushing me stop throwing me against the wall and saying ‘what? you don’t like the wall? you don’t like the fucking wall? Stop pushing me.”
JD “Amber, I’m not pushing you…. I need space. And I will take my space whether you like it or not. I will take it. And you will...

… take your space….”
AH: “I’m begging you to stop”
JD: “I have to go.”
…
AH: “Please stop. YOu’re causing me so much fucking stress. I’m going to die. I’m going to fucking die you’re causing me so much stress. Please stop. Please.” [she goes on]

[very rapidly]

JD is taken to the audio played at the end of last Thursday in which he has a knife and is demanding she cut him with it or he’ll do it himself. He explains it was in a hotel room in San Francisco in July 2016 “after the Restraining Order had been put on me….

… I had been on tour through Europe and then coming through the States. I got messages from Christian Carino who was both of our former agent saying that Ms Heard wanted to meet with me in SF because… one of the last dates on the tour was SF. And I was confused as to why...

… Ms Heard wanted to meet with me especially as I was under a court order not to come within… a hundred… two hundred feet or something of her.”
[an objection]
“We went to a hotel room so we could finish the discussion she wanted to have with me."

“I was quite confused as to why I had been summoned to her at that point. Since all the news just about the fact that I had allegedly done all these horrible things to her and so I was talked into going there and went and met with her in the hope that she would retract her...

… lies. That the world was now fed. It had been fed. And in no way was she ready to do that. And I couldn’t understand why I was there. Everything had been taken from me. My children couldn’t escape the fact all this had gone down….

[more objection on children angle]

JD asked why he was threatening to hurt himself in that recording.

“In fact I wasn’t threatening to hurt myself, I thought that Ms Heard had brought me to SF… under false pretenses...

… I don’t know what she was after so I had a knife in my pocket and I just took the knife out and I said ‘here… cut me. That’s what you want to do. Ultimately you’ve taken everything. You want my blood? Take it. Have my blood.’ and she said ‘no, no.’ and then I said…

‘look if you’re not going to take it… I know you want it… that’s all I’ve got left, take it’. If she wasn’t going to do it, I would have done it, because that’s psychologically, emotionally where I was. I was at the end. I was broken. Not only had I had to deal with...

…. arrows from all over the world… I don’t know what she was trying to do, so I just the only answer was ‘here - cut me. take my blood. That’s all I’ve got left to give you.’ Obviously there was no threat to Ms Heard with that knife. It was about spilling my blood…

… the only thing she didn’t have at that point. I was broken and really just at the end. At the end. I couldn’t take it any more."

[we go to a clip of a phone call where JD is trying to sort out a settlement with AH. AH says she doesn’t know how to get her reputation back. JD suggests a joint letter, say they love each other, want to take it out of the public eye, AH raises the DV issue. JD says they have...

… to deal with it. She is worried about her credibility. JD asks why she put it out there. AH says she didn’t. He forced her. His team forced her to by going on the offence. AH says she didn;’t do it. AH says she didn’t call the cops. JD says iO called the cops and that AH...

… told him to. AH says she was trying to protect him. JD says she told iO to call the cops. AH says she had been feared for her life and that he might kill her by accident and I told you that. JD says “Amber I lost a fucking finger, man. Come on.” he says he had a can...

… of mineral spirits thrown at his nose. AH says you can tell people it was a fair fight and see what the jury and judge think. “Tell the world, Johnny. Tell them.. ‘I Johnny Depp… am a victim of DV... and see how many people believe or side with you.’"
JD: “Yes!”]

JD’s evidence ends.

We are introduced to Ben King from London. He is a house manager and a PA to an individual in London. Been doing this in 1991 in private services - butlering in London. Spent four years at Buckingham Palace.

Works for high net worth people. Worked for JD in 2014 and subsequently a couple of times after that.
Was freelancing and got jobs through friends of friends and was asked to go work for JD in Aug 2014.

Paid via a large hotel close by to the house who also supplied a housekeeper. He set up the house “ahead of the principals arriving” and organising linen etc and once they’d arrived doing some butlering and managing the housekeeper.

Large Mayfair townhouse, spacious, indoor pool, 4 or 5 bedrooms. They were there for Aug 2014.

Worked 7am to 7pm to 8pm - Russell the chef “brilliant chef” stayed on.

He had daily interactions with AH and JD and observed JD and AH on a daily basis.

Said JD and AH were initially loving. JD keen to make sure AH was looked after. nice, pleasant.

Described his own interactions “my background’s quite formal so it was quite an informal setting…

… I was able to ask questions to either of them. Ms Heard especially it was really helpful to get information about what time they wanted dinner, you know, basic stuff."

we get onto alcohol consumption

“I didn’t see JD consume any alcohol during that time in London… generally 1 or 2 bottles were consumed a day”

Says he saw AH consume wine daily.

Says he saw a few arguments between JD and AH and can remember 2 especially.

AH shouting in the master suite. Heard footsteps and then more footsteps and shouting - “it went on for a bit… they left eventually”

Second argument JD and AH were in the TV room “I was close enough to hear AH say ‘why did you take your hand away from me Johnny...

… don’t you love me any more?’ Not in a playful way, I might add…. it kind of launched from that point.”

“A banal way to start an argument”

Asked what her tone was: “accusatory? spoilt teenage child? maybe? is that fair? not playfully… more angrily"

Next worked for them the next year. He went out to work for them in Australia whilst they’re filming Pirates 5 - on the Gold Coast - an hour’s drive south of Brisbane. 4 Feb 2015. Same job responsibilities. Bigger house though.

Employed on this occasion by Disney’s production company.

Lived on site in a guest house setting up the house and then moved out when they arrived.

Says AH drank one or two bottles of wine a day. Recalls seeing several arguments between AH and JD.

We go to fri 6 March 2015. Took a photo of the sunset early evening and left shortly after that.

Saw AH next Sun 8 March. Called to the house by one of JD’s assistants at 2.30pm. Debbie Lloyd, JJ, Dr K and AH was there.

Parked up and went into the house. Heard hysterical sobbing from AH. Dr K was in the kitchen area.

Says AH was hysterical. Crying a lot. Uncontrollably.

JJ was keeping her calm. He was calm. BK says he went into the kitchen area and spoke to Dr K.

Dr K was rummaging through a bin. Dr K was looking for the fingertip. BK started helping look for it. Went downstairs to search. BK found the finger in the bar area.

Big chunk had been taken out of the marble staircase. Saw a broken ping pong table, lots of broken glass, cans strewn around. Finger found directly below the bar.

… in a scrunched up piece of paper towel. Puddles of alcohol, a couple of bottles (one of Stoli), damage to the marble bar, smashed mirror, broken window, plaster damage. The bottle of vodka was smashed. Lots of other broken glass around the area.
Took the finger - said...

… he found it. Gave it to Dr K and JJ.

Took him an hour to find the finger.
Blod drips across the floor in the games area and around the bar. Plasterwork damaged behind bar and at the end. On the main floor there was damage in the kitchen. Soda cans.

Blood on a cream coloured couch. Wall mounted TV cracked with remnants of a coffee cup embedded in it. Art studio wrecked with blood drips and paint on the floor. One bedroom had blood drips on the duvet. Lampshade removed. Lampshades in the art studio removed. Next level...

… had blood drips on the cream-coloured carpet (“not ideal”) writing on the his and hers mirrors in the bathroom. JD’s guitar was bloodstained.

BK had to clear it up - his responsiibility. Assessed all the damage. No damaged phones or a phone ripped off the wall.

Art that came with the house. No damage to the art that came with the house “certainly not. thank goodness”
Other damage
“Just a lot of blood. The floor was quite heavy with blood and paint.”

BK is taken toa photo of one of the mirrors in the master bathrooms. Says the black paint is oil paint is what he found downstairs.
What about the “Call Carly Simon, she said it better babe?”
BK: Lipstick - quite waxy taking it off.
BK says he was at the house clearing up...

… for a long time. Left at 2 or 3am.

Interactions with AH? Yes.
AH was hysterical, crying a lot, later in the evening it was suggested that AH go to a local hotel which then became a suggestion she go back to LA. BK volunteered to travel with her to LA.

AH v resistant to leaving the house or for LA. These negotiations went over a few hours and eventually AH agreed. BK flew with AH on 9 March.
BK asked how close he was to AH. He said there were no injuries on her “none whatsoever.”

Says by 9 March she had calmed down a fair bit. She was on the phone on the way to the airport pretty much the whole journey including to JD at one point.

BK went ahead to check the bags in and then came back to get AH once she was off the phone. Made the flight but it was “a close call to be honest” - she was on the phone in the plane bathroom to the point the cabin crew had to get her to sit down so they could take off.

They were in first class “which was lovely” and once settled BK asked what happened in the house. AH replies “have you every been so angry with someone you’ve just lost it with them?”
BK says no. AH is incredulous and repeats the question.

BK remembers sleeping most of the flight. Asked if he spotted anything physcial about AH.

Yes, he says, marks on her left forearm “long, kind of uniform, evenly spaced… long thing marks, very uniform in fact."

On landing BK saw he would be picked up by Travis McGivern. They made contact and walked through arrivals and met him there, got in the car and drove to the ECB.

BK says in LA AH was “pretty calm”, pleasant towards Travis. Showed me around the PH suites. Gave him some...

… restaurant recommendations and then BK left and offered his assistance if she needed anything.

BK was in LA less than a week. Flew back on 14th or 15th March.

Continued putting the house back together in Australia with professional contractors he brought in.

AH came back. BK saw them. Describes their intitial interactions as v pleasant. “almost honeymoon-like” then saw MORE arguments “many… several more"

BK is now going to be cross examined.

AH’s attorney asks if he saw any arguments before JD lost his finger in Australia. BK says he thinks there were.

BK asked about 8 March finding the finger in a piece of paper. Paper towel (or kitchen paper as we say in the UK - some confusion between them there)

Asked if BK saw Marilyn Manson?
No.
BK says MM did not come to the house and didn’t know where he was going when he went out, but he mainly went out for work. And he did visit him on set once.

BK confirming JD left Australia after the finger incident and that Pirates continued filming and JD came back to resume filming in April.

DIdn’t live with JD in the house “I wasn’t resident there, no.”

“There was a lot of damage throughout the house."

BK confirms glass on the floor, blood on the floor and on the walls. Smears up the staircase, smears and drips on the carpet.

Confirms sofa blood damage. Sofa was on the main level. Damaged lights confirmed. BK confirms there was alcohol in and out of the fridge. Says there was a lot of damage to the floors “I eventually got them sanded”
It took 12 to 13 hours to clean up.

Confirms saw no art damage. No painting with a painting of a penis on it. No art was damaged. Did anyone else see it. Confirms JJ was at the house. Adele was not at the house on the Sunday.

BK asked if he told JJ he could get the housekeeper to swear to silence.
Doesn’t agree. Trusted her and the chef anyway - they were good team members.
Agrees trust and discretion was part of his job.

The jury is shown a picture of a lampshade with dark paint on it. BK confirms he took it.

We go to the mirrors in the master bathroom - BK doesn’t recall the writing’s words, but says it was paint and agrees its probable he took the mirror photos.

“I didn’t analyse it to be honest, I just knew I was going to have to clean it up”

Says he saw writing in lipstick and paint, but not necessarily blood.

BK says he helped AH pack and didn’t see any ruined clothes.
A no paint or blood
BK no
Asked if he took any more pics of the house than the three we’ve seen.
BK he did - questioned on how many he says around 10 - offers to show the photo of the broken vodka bottle in court now!

Not taken up on the offer.
Says he gave some of his photos to some people who asked for them ahead of the UK case. Never shared them with anybody else.
Assesses damage cost at $50,000 (not sure if this is US or AUS)

Flew back to LA with AH- questioned on AH’s comment - have you ever got so angry with someone you’ve just lost it. Attorney says he didn’t ask what she was talking about. BK says it’s pretty clear.

[I’m bugging out to try to get round the back of court for JD and AH’s departures]

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