Amber Heard has now filed a statement with the Los Angeles Police Department about alleged abuse from Johnny Depp, her legal team said Tuesday.
In a new statement to the media, Heard’s lawyers explained that she initially refused to give police an official statement in an effort to keep the divorce proceedings out of the press, but “Johnny’s team has forced” her to take action.
“Johnny’s team has forced Amber to give a statement to the LAPD to set the record straight as to the true facts, as she cannot continue to leave herself open to the vicious false and malicious allegations that have infected the media,” Heard’s lawyers Samantha F. Spector and Joseph P. Koenig said. “Amber has suffered through years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Johnny.”
The statement goes on to point out that many victims of domestic violence do not file police reports against their abusers. “In reality, Amber acted no differently than many victims of domestic violence, who think first of the harm that might come to the abuser, rather than the abuse they have already suffered.”
“We took the high road,” the statement concluded. “Unfortunately, Johnny’s team immediately went to the press and began viciously attacking Amber’s character. Amber is simply a victim of domestic violence, and none of her actions are motivated by money. Amber is a brave and financially independent woman who is showing the courage of her convictions by doing the right thing against Johnny’s relentless army of lawyers and surrogates.”
Heard is claiming that Depp came to their Hollywood home on May 21 drunk and high, and proceeded to hit in the face with his phone. She arrived in divorce court last week with visible marks on her face.
However, an insider close to the couple says that Heard is trying to use the allegations to extort money from the movie star.
Comedian Doug Stanhope, a friend of Depp, published a guest column on TheWrap this weekend with his point of view of the situation. He wrote that Depp was being falsely accused of physical abuse, and and being manipulated by Heard, who was “threatening to lie about him publicly in any and every possible duplicitous way if he didn’t agree to her terms.”
“Blackmail is what I would imagine other people might put it, including the manner in which he is now being vilified,” Stanhope wrote.
The column sparked a denial from Heard’s lawyer, Peter Sample, who called Stanhope’s allegations “absolutely and unequivocally false.”