Thread by @nickwallis

Good after (just) in ET time (just) and welcome to Fairfax County Court where I have not been live tweeting due to a UK 5 News commitment and due to wanting to spend a bit of time in court.

#JohnnyDepptrial
#DeppvHeard

Tweet thread follows...

The day started with the cross-examination of Dr Dawn Hughes by Johnny Depp’s team.

DH is a forensic psychologist hired by AH’s team. Yesterday she told court she diagnosed AH with PTSD due to violent sexual abuse by JD. She also did not diagnose her with BPD or HPD...

… this morning Wayne Dennison for JD’s team said that when DrH spoke of victims she always used the she/her pronouns and said she couldn’t remember when she last testified for a male victim of abuse.

DrH said she used female pronouns because it was appropriate to her...

… findings in this case.

[btw everything I write in every thread about this case is a summary or paraphrase of what happened in court. Only words in “direct quotes” are direct quotes]

… she also made the point that whilst she has evaluated plenty of male victims, cases very rarely come to trial.

WD said she was not making any specific findings on the facts of the case. She wasn’t there and didn’t see what happened.

DrH agreed, she correlated data...

… from her tests to see what it matched. And had come to her conclusions about Amber Heard and Johnny Depp from that.

DrH told the court she was charging $500ph and could be fired at any time by AH’s lawyers.

WD moves on to DrH’s assessment of AH’s and JD’s relationship and queries how she could do it without even speaking to JD.

DrH says its perfectly possible.

WD makes the point that all the evidence in medical notes made to doctors is given to them to by AH.

DrH agrees Dr Cohen testified that JD never intended to hurt AH. But states he ws poorly controlled and therefore DrC believed JD was a threat to her emotional and physical...

… safety.

We got to her interview with Paige Heard. DrH agrees parents might not be wholly reliable and want to protect their child. Also agrees that PH said she loved JD even after accusations of abuse.

We move to Laurel Anderson. DrH did not interview her. DrA said she did not believe that AH was a victim of spousal abuse.

WD says DrA concluded that JD had no history of violence. DrH counters that he was triggered by AH.

DrH also disagrees with DrA’s conclusion about “mutual abuse”

We move to lethality - when a woman is in a dangerous situation. In her testimony DrH says AH was in threat and fear of her life from JD.

We are shown a picture of a knife AH gave JD inscribed in Spanish “until death”. WD asks if these are the actions of a woman in fear of her life.
“There’s context” she replied. WD says we’ll get to it later.

WD asking about intimate relationships and notes DrH put James Franco and Elon Musk on a piece of paper heading “intimate relationships”.

DrH says there’s a line separating that out from the main heading but admits it has no other heading. WD raisies the point that JF...

… was at the least a very close friend whilst she was married to JD. Asks DrH when AH started dating EM and she says after the TRO (temporary restraining order) which AH raised when filing for divorce.

DrH agrees that AH hit JD. WD is asked if AH is abused she gets to hit JD.

DrH says no. But agrees AH hit JD in a number of instances. WD plays DrH some audio it is a recording we’ve already heard of...

… AH admitting starting a physical fight.

WD asks if this is reactive violence. DrH says that if she hit him first it is not reactive violence.

WD asks what medical records show any evidence of AH being injured. DrH says Erin Falati’s records, DrK’s practice and Dr Anderson’s all have evidence.

WD goes to the bottle/can throwings. DrH says they can...

… be examples of reactive violence, but they may not be.

DrH says “I don’t think throwing bottles is acceptable in any context."

We go to the PTSD evaluation. DrH agrees she made this diagnosis before using the CAP5 test.

She says that she had PTSD in 2019, PTSD in 2021 and PTSD when she did the CAP5 test.

[CAPS5, sorry]

Administered the CAPS5 test over Zoom.

[CAPS5 is considered the gold standard test for PTSD and was the same one Dr Shannon Curry used to assess AH as not having PTSD]

DrH is being shown the instructions on how to administer the CAPS5 test.

WD is saying she has left gaps in her CAPS5 assessment of AH. DrH says all the info is in her 80 page hand-written clinical notes.

Lots of questions about her methodology on this PTSD test. given caps5 is the gold standard and one expert used it to come up with one result and the other used it come up with the exact opposite, this is a key battleground.

[I am sitting outside court tweeting about an hour behind the testimony from the Law nd Crim feed. DrH has just walked past looking somewhat harrassed.]

I am going to try to tweet the highlights of the post morning session. WD is pushing DrH hard on her methodology when...

… conducting the CAPS5 test and recording the results.

drH says AH had a number of PTSD symptoms whilst filming Aquaman.

Moving onto another assessment made by DrH.

[The point WD appears to be making (but has not directly alleged) is that DrH has either been sloppy or slanted the test towards her preconceptions]

DrH is asked about IPV before AH met JD and says she saw no evidence of AH being violent before her relationship with JD. The issue of Tasya - AH’s former partner is raised.

WD askes to approach the bench. There is a conference.

The Tasya issued appears to have been dropped.

DrH is asked if James Franco spent the night with AH at the ECB between 21 - 26 May 2016.

She isn’t sure. She’s asked the same question about Elon Musk. DrH doesn’t know.

WD asks if DrH is saying that JD was not abused.

DrH says “I can testify that he physical acts of violence perpetrated on him as well as psychological aggressive acts perpetrated on him.

[cross-examination concludes]

It’s my daughter’s birthday so I’m going to give her a call during the lunch break and then resume to live tweet this afternoon...

If you would like to support my work and get a daily newsletter summing up the day’s events, please do sign up here:

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That address above will also take you to my podcast and youtube updates - the latest features a debrief of yesterday’s evidence and...

… and interview with a semi-retired attorney and mens rights activist who is taking a close interest in this case.

Back at 2pm ish.

Sorry - 2pm ET - 7pm UK time. Other times are available.

PS Amber Heard will be the first witness after lunch.

Amber Heard is sworn in to give evidence. he calls herself an “actor… mostly”.

“I am here because my ex-husband is suing me for an op-ed I wrote… I struggle to find the words to describe how painful this is. It is horrible for me to sit here and relive everything...

… hear people that I knew some well some not - my ex-husband with whom I shared a life… this is the most painful and difficult thing I’ve ever gone through for sure."

Asked about the 2020 trial in the UK.
“I was not party to that lawsuit. I was a witness… I suppose the primary witness"

“I think I gave 7 witness statements, under oath statements. I sat on the stand for 4 days under mostly cross-examination. And up until this point it was the hardest thing I had to do.”

Asked about her background:

Raised in Austin, Texas. Has an older...

… sister, but grew up with her mum, dad and younger sister.

Talking about breaking horses with her dad. You have to be tough, calm. Not be intimidated and not show fear.

She decided she wanted to get out of Texas. She was a scholarship kid at several catholic schools.

Left school at 16. Worked at her father’s construction company. Worked at a modelling agency. Started doing charity work as a requirement of her school, but then grew to like it as it meant she didn’t have to be at home. Worked at a soup kitchen, with deaf kids.

Taught herself basic sign language, then did a course.

Had a small movie part in Texas, met another actor’s agent who had heard of her. Flew out to LA aged 17 to meet the agent.

Did lots of castings and meetings, went to 10 auditions a day sometimes. "Hustled from one audition to another” - went from bit parts, to bigger parts and has evolved since then.

From 2002 - 2009 she took small roles in big films Friday Night Lights, Pineapple Express and...

… occasionally big roles in smaller films (eg the lead in a John Carpenter film). “Just working my butt off.”

Auditioned a few times for the Rum Diary. Had a couple of callbacks after the initial audition. Then she was asked to meet Johnny.

Thought it might be an audition, but it was just a meeting. They spoke about books and music and poetry - “we liked a lot of the same stuff… obscure writers… interesting books and pieces of poetry I hadn’t heard anyone else reference or know or like."

“I wasn’t a fan of his work I wasn’t familiar with him, but I knew who he was - one of the most famous people in the world, so it was already a weird thing to go and get called into his office…. and you know, I’m a no-name actor. I was 22, I think and I thought it was...

“unusual… It was weird because he’s twice my age and he’s a world famous actor and here we are getting along about obscure books and weird… old blues… I thought it was remarkable. I thought it was unusual and remarkable."

After JD calls her: “My phone rings and i hear this like deep voice on the other line and he said ‘you got the… you know you’re it kit… Hunter wrote this part and you’re the dream. You’re it, kid."

Started filming March 2009 in Puerto Rico, set in the 1950s. “It was a very colourful shoot in general. I could not have asked for a better scenario… occasionally Johnny would talk to me and then he started to be really kind to me."

They grew close.
“Johnny and I shared in common a love for wine, red wine and we were talking about a kind of wine that I enjoyed and I was going on about how great this bargain wine was and I didn’t understand how much more sophisticated Johnny’s taste in wine was...

… and I was going on about the virtues of Malbec or something and I brought him a bottle of this wine and I set it down and at some point I’m going back to get back to set and he kicked his foot up in the air and lifted the back of my bathrobe up…”

She is asked to explain...

why she is wearing a bathrobe and she says it was because she had to change in a scene.

“… and I kind of turned around and giggled… I didn’t know what to make of it at the time and I just kind of giggled and batted it away playfully and he kind of playfully...

… kind of pushed me down on this bed/sofa - playful and flirtatious and he said ‘Yum’ and he kind of lifted up his eyebrows like that.”

AH confirms she and JD were in a relationship at that time. Says she felt chemistry “beyond the pale of my job”. She felt “intimidated” by...

that, but nothing more happened for several months.

Then JD called and invited her over to his home in Beverley Hills. She didn’t have his phone number at this time. She refused the invitation.

He sent her gifts. A dress. Collectable books. Guitars.

Her partner intercepted this. AH sent the guitar back.

Talks about the press tour for the Rum Diary.

It was in Oct 2011. She had just split up with her partner.

She was invited to JD’s room for a drink with her and the film’s director. Once she got there she was told the director would not make it.

JD told her he had split with the mother of his kids so he understood what she was going through.

They drank red wine and “the reconnection was almost instant… it felt like there was an electricity to the room"

“we talked, finished some wine and then I got up and left and as I went to leave, he grabbed both sides of my face - similar to what he did in Puerto Rico when we were filming that scene - and kissed me and I kissed him back”

asked what happened next...

“We fell in love."

But “we had to be really under the radar” as JD had not publicised his split from Vanessa Paradis, but he assured her it was over. However if they were to go public over their relationship “the world would blame me and call me a homewrecker even though I had nothing to do...

… with it. So we were secretly dating and then… it was beautiful.”

“I felt like this man knew me and saw me in a way no one else had. I felt he understood me. I felt he understood where I came from. I felt like that when I was around Johnny I felt like the most beautiful...

… person in the world… he made me feel like a million dollars."

Talks about living in a beautiful bubble and hiding away at her house or in many of his houses painting and talking about poetry, books and music etc etc, but then he would disappear for days and she couldn’t contact him. Then he contacts her and mentions he's having some...

.. health issue and could he join her at his island. They meet on the island and JD is “drinking Becks and tea. Like lots of tea. Like LOTS of tea. And I didn’t, foolishly, think anything of it. I just thought…. the man… really really loves tea.”

She said it was a lovely...

… week, a beautiful place and was a beautiful time “I fell head over heels in love with this man."

This was in early 2012. AH was doing job-to-job-to-job, one movie to the next. And then coming back to hide in LA with JD. Then he went to film the Lone Ranger. She was shooting Machete Kills.

Visited JD, stayed at his home. Cooked and painted whilst waiting for him. JD told him about a health issue with his liver which is why he wasn’t drinking. She would take off his boots
“Anything I can do to show love, certainly how I felt about him. But if he wanted to...

… take off his own boots, he certainly could."

JD gave AH long curved daggers. He had a knife and gun collection. She picked up a knife with a turquoise handle and had it engraved with a saying JD said a lot “hasta la morte” - until death.

JD began to develop a relationship with AH’s Mom and Dad.

JD and AH’s dad bonded - JD gave him guns and knives. “I think my dad would have married him myself if I hadn’t”. JD gave Paige Heard jewelry “they were definitely taken by him.” JD bonded with Whitney too.

“He found a bond with them… he tried to do anything and everything...

… he could to make them feel special and they did."

Showered AH’s friends with gifts, generosity and love.

JD bought AH a horse. She said no. He worked it out with AH’s dad and bought her a horse. She had resisted for a month and a half. “All of a sudden I had a colt."

[we go over more iterations of how much in love they were]

AH says he began to start disappearing again. “When he first started drinking I didn’t really think much of it but all of a sudden the behaviour started to go inline with the disappearing and he’d come back...

… and he’d just be different. I’d say something and he’d accuse me of saying something else or saying it in a different way and... it was mostly my clothing at time and me working. That was the main thing…. I found myself trying to not talk about auditions because it...

… would change the mood so dramatically…. he would make these comments about ‘whoring myself out’ but do so in the context of me acting... And he would talk about other actresses who do my role in this way where they were ‘worthless whores’…"

Talks about picking out a dress that she really liked because she “felt pretty” in it. She wore it to a red carpet event to publicise a charity. She showed him and she told him about the charity and she thought it was “weird” he wasn’t saying anything about it...

… and she went to do the event and came back and he asked him about it. He hadn’t been talking to her since she came back from LA and she mentioned the event and asked if he saw it and he allegedly said “Yeah. Yeah. I think the whole world saw that, kid. That’s how they’ll...

… remember you. That’s how the world will remember you… that’s all they’ll see you as and that’s what you wanted.”

AH says it was low cut and took his point. Says JD never stopped her from wearing anything but would comment “no wonder you get cast in those roles. that’s...

… what you are. That’s what you’re making it."

"And then… then there would be a blow up… at first it would be just throw something, smash some things… loves to smash up a place, an apartment… furniture. That’s what it started with. Glass… threw a glass at me. I remember it was summer and he just threw this glass...

… across the kitchen and… it didn’t hit me but it shattered behind me and I remember thinking that very easily could have hit me. And calling me a ‘whore’…

[…]

“I started to notice the pattern of escalation where he’d throw glass or turn over a table then he would hit the wall and then he would hit the wall really close to my head. You know like when I’m standing there you know and just hit the wall really close to me…"

“… then he would disappear, and get clean and sober and he’d come back and tell me that he was done drinking he was over it… cleaned himself up. he’d done if before and he’d do it again. And then he’d go back to this wonderful… unbelievably nice sensitive kind warm...

… generous funny man that I loved."

“I would feel so distant from that thing, that was so scary.

Asked if she remembers the first time JD physically hit AH she says

“Yes… I will never forget it.. it changed my life. I was sitting on the couch and we were talking - like having a normal conversation… there was...

… no fighting no argument, nothing. And.. he was drinking and I didn’t realise at the time but I think he was using cocaine because like there was a jar… a JAR of cocaine on the table. I realise that sounds weird but… an actual vintage jar of it. But I didn’t see him use it...

… at the time… we’re sitting next to each other on the couch and I asked him about the tattoo he has on his arm and to me it just looked like black marks. I didn’t know what it said, it just looked like a muddled, faded tattoo that was hard to read.”

AH asks what it says...

JD allegedly replies “Wino.. it says wino” - AH didn’t see that and thought he was joking and laughed. “And he slapped me across the face. And I laughed. I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. I thought… ‘this must be a joke’ because I didn’t know what was going...

… on. I just stared at him kind off laughing still, thinking that he was going to start laughing too to tell me it was a joke. But he didn’t. He said ‘you think it’s so funny, you think it’s funny, bitch. You think you’re a funny bitch.’ and he slapped me again."

She says she is stunned and doesn’t react. Just continues staring at him. So he slaps her again “hard” and this time “I lose my balance… I was on the edge of the couch and I’m all of a sudden realising that the worst thing has just happened to me"

She says that she remembers lying on the carpet (and remembers thinking how flithy it was) and how she knew what just happened was wrong and how she had to leave. She was “looking at the dirty carpet trying to will myself to get up to walk out the because I knew I needed to...

… and I really slowly I stood up and I remember looking at him in the eye and… before I know it he starts crying."

AH says JD begs forgiveness. AH leaves, gets in her car and tries to leave. She is “heartbroken” - wills herself to leave - she turns the key in the car and goes home.
A few days later JD starts to get into contact… he comes over and promises it will never happen again.

So she stays in the relationship. “I believed there was a line he’d never cross again and that was it."

Relationship continues. He disappears again. He’s drinking. He’d come back in the middle of the night. And he’d want to know what she was doing, who she was seeing. He was angry at her doing auditions. He’d accuse her of cheating. It would escalate. He’d push her and shove her.

Then he accused her of having an affair with her ex. When she denied it, he hit her.

AH continues to tell her about JD’s alleged escalating jealousy. She kept waiting for the “sobriety shoe” to drop.
AH is directed to “the painting incident” by her attorney (Elaine Bredehoft). AH had a painting by her ex. JD had been drinking and taking cocaine and keeping...

“weird hours” and he apparently decided the painting was proof AH was having an affair with her ex. AH said that this was not the case, so JD takes it down and tries, unsuccessfully, to burn it. AH says it was a ridiculous fight - she tried leaving but the argument went on...

… and on.

EB takes her to the Disco Bloodbath text exchange.

“He was accusing me of sleeping with this artist.. musician, who I’d never slept with… I was denying it, I barely knew the person…”

JD then accuses her of sleeping with her friend and calls him in Spain...

… and starts yelling at him. The friend does not speak English so is quite confused at being yelled at on the phone by JD.

Then AH says “he backhands me… he wears a lot of rings and it kind of felt my lip went into my teeth and it got a little blood on the wall...

… “ and she says she didn’t internalise it. She didn’t make a deal with it and tried to make a joke of it (hence the Disco Bloodbath reference).

We move on to another incident. We are shown a photo AH has taken of a bruise on her arm. “Johnny slapped me. I walked away from...

… him and that made it worse. We got into a shouting mathc and he kind of did this thing with his body where I could tell he was going to hit me again. I picked up a … vase and I remember I got away from him enough, as he reels back I threw it in his direction. I actually...

… managed to get away before he got me. He grabbed me by the arm and he kind of just held me on the floor, screaming at me. I don’t know how many times he hit me in the face but I remember being on the floor in my apartment and I’m just thinking...

… ‘how can this happen to me again?’"

We go to a photo of the lines of cocaine, drug box and two glasses of amber drink. One is a glass containing a berocca tablet and the other is a glass of what amber calls ‘Johnny’s liquor’ which was kept in the freezer. There is a bag in shot with a CD on it - the bag contains….

… according to Ah because we can’t see it “prescriptions, cigarette, tobacco, weed… things like that.” and says the CD is a single they were making a video for.

AH sent this photo to Rocky Pennington (this is in March 2013).

We go to Hicksville in May 2013 - “a fancy trailerpark - a hotel in the middle of nowhere”

Decided to go there to do “laugh-y drugs” mushrooms. Says it was going fine - a party in the desert, music, campfire. Someone brought some MDMA and it was being passed around...

… and someone who took it was starting to feel the effects of it. She leaned into AH and took her arm. AH had eaten a “mushroom cap… but was not feeling anything at the time.”

JD got very “upset” - everyone thought that he was making a joke, but AH said she saw what...

… was coming. Soon everyone except the girl saw he was serious and so she carried on. JD allegedly says “Hey man - you think you’re touching my fucking girl?”

AH says JD gets more agitated and eventually grabs the girl’s wrist and says “do you know how many pounds of...

… pressure it takes to break a human wrist? Huh?!”

The girl starts crying and AH steps and they agree to and talk about it in their trailer.

JD accuses AH of having something going on with the woman. She denies it. JD starts to trash the trailer, screaming at AH.
AH goes to the back bedroom area. AH says JD is not making sense any more and realises he must be “really high"

… she keeps denying any affair. Then he starts looking for something. She goes to the bathroom and when he comes out he asks where it is. She doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He says: “You know what I’m fucking talking about. Be honest with me. Where are you hiding it?"

AH says “What am I hiding and where am I going to hide it?”
JD then rips the top part of AH’s dress, grabbing her breast, touching her thighs “he rips my underwear off and then he proceeds to do a cavity search… he said he was looking for his drugs, his cocaine"

“I was wonder how I, as someone who didn’t do cocaine and was against it… and he was telling me ‘we’re going to conduct a cavity search’ and… he just chucked his fingers inside me… I just stood there staring at the stupid light. I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there."

…
“he twisted his fingers around. I didn’t say ‘stop’ or anything I just…”
[AH is very emotional relating this]
AH doesn not remember watching much about the rest of the night, the next day, she just remembers “wanting whatever fucking weird trip...

… (excuse me) whatever trip that was to end… just to be over”

AH says she went out to the pool and put on her face and made a joke about how the trailer got trashed and got on with it.

We go to June 2013. By this stage AH was “torn” about their relationship. He was still “the love of my life” but he was also "this other thing" and this other thing “was awful. [This] awful thing that would come out and take over and you couldn’t see the Johnny I loved...

… underneath it.”

AH says that he couldn’t see he had a problem and everyone cleaned up after him, she cleaned up after him and eventually the problem would overtake him and he’d get cleaned up and the man she loved would come back.

On 26 June 2013 she did MDMA on a plane to Russia with JD. AH says she thought maybe she didn’t have to be the “'lesbian camp counsellor' all the time… maybe I could be the ‘fun girlfriend’?"

She took one capsule, JD took several. The flight attendant was offered one, refused and then JD persuaded her to. The woman got friendly with AH and JD grabs her wrist and tells her he will break it. She gets upset and starts crying and retreats to another part of the plane.

Nothing happens between JD and AH on the plane, but when they get to the hotel he starts to accuse her of initiating some kind of sexual interest in the flight attendant. It escalates.

“At one point Johnny just shoves me. Shoves me. Hard. I fall back onto this glass...

… table, and I catch myself on the table… furniture got knocked around, I’m trying to stand up for myself. I’m trying to stand up, literally… i don’t try to hit back or try to run. I’m in this hotel… at some point Johnny whacks me in the face and I don’t even… remember...

… feeling pain or like awareness of my nose… I remember kind of crying.”
Ah says she goes into the bathroom and was wanting him to snap out of it. She goes into the hallway and sees JD’s bodyguard Jerry Judge in the hall. He gestures to her nose and holds out a cloth...

… handkerchief “and I instantly felt… embarrassed… I felt ashamed.”

“I had little blood coming out of my nose. I didn’t know it I didn’t feel it at the time until Jerry gave me… let me know…. I remember just wanting Johnny to say sorry… I just wanted things to be okay."

We finish the day with the incident on the yacht in the Bahamas which involves JD allegedly drinking heavily but trying to hide it from his kids. But i have to go outside now. Full report tonight - do sign up here if you want to join the newsletter gang for a one-time-only...

… donation for the rest of the trial:

reportingdeppvheard.net/newsletter/

Thanks for reading all the tweets.

@threadreaderapp unroll pls