Johnny Depp returned to the stand after all – just not as a witness for Amber Heard’s team.
Depp took a seat in the witness box Wednesday to clear up a laundry-list of items, including quashing once and for all the rumor that he once pushed supermodel girlfriend Kate Moss down a set of stairs. But when Depp’s lawyer asked her final question – how does it feel to hear Amber Heard’s accusations? – he delivered what amounted to a final statement to the jury.
“Heinous. … unimaginably cruel,” he said. “And all false.”
“No human being is perfect,” he continued. “But I have never in my life committed sexual battery, physical abuse, all these outlandish, outrageous stories of me committing these things. And living with it for six years. And waiting to be able to bring the truth out. So this is not easy for any of us. I know that. But no matter what happens, I did get here, and I did tell the truth. And I have spoken up for what I’ve been carrying on my back reluctantly for six years.”
The court then recessed for lunch break; it wasn’t immediately clear whether Heard’s lawyers would take the chance to cross-examine him upon return.
The move to call the “Pirates” actor to the box came after Heard’s team reversed course and decided not to call him earlier this week. Heard’s defense has rested, and testimony is scheduled to conclude Friday.
Before his final flourish, Depp’s lawyers guided him through a short list of minor rebuttals to various testimony from Team Heard. Depp scoffed at the idea that he had once taken between eight and 10 Ecstasy pills – or that he ever took the drug much at all. Asked how many times he’s taken MDMA, he replied: “Not that many times in my lifetime. In my lifetime? MDMA? Six, seven maybe?”
His lawyer then asked how much he would take at once.
“Not enough to … properly, well … not enough to properly experience what the chemicals are supposed to do to you,” he said.
And why would it not make sense that he would take as many as 10 MDMA pills at once?
“Because I’d be dead,” he chuckled. “I’m pretty sure I’d be dead. I think one would die. Yes. And probably rather quickly.”
Depp followed Kate Moss, who appeared earlier in the morning via video conference from the U.K.
Moss, who dated Depp from 1994-1998, was questioned only about a time she fell down the stairs at a resort in Jamaica – an incident that sparked rumors he had pushed her, which she strongly denied. She said she slipped in a downpour and that Depp rushed back to help her.
That set up Depp’s later testimony, which corroborated Moss’ account.
“As Kate testified, it was many many years ago. And exactly what happened is what she said happened. I recall speaking with Ms. Heard about that very incident because of the down-pouring of rain, because it was raining very heavily that day that Kate slipped. And I remember telling the story to her.”
“I remember looking and seeing Kate coming out the door, and there were three little wooden stairs, and she went (makes hand motions) and landed on her lower back,” Depp said. “She was in pain, she was crying, so I ran over to grab her to see if she was all right. That’s it, that’s the whole story.”
During her turn on the stand, Heard had testified that the 1990s rumor was on her mind during an altercation involving Depp and her sister Whitney Heard Henriquez. During that fight, Heard said, Depp ran up a staircase and hit Henriquez, which sparked a physical confrontation.
Depp said during their relationship, Heard held the rumor against him.
“She’s spewed this three times before,” Depp said, though he didn’t clarify when.
He then said he’d never heard the rumor at all – until Heard “grabbed hold of it.”
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million claiming she libeled him in the 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post. Heard filed a $100 million counterclaim for defamation for Depp’s attorney calling her a “liar.”