On the heels of their legal victory last week, several news outlets are reporting Amber Heard’s legal team may now have proof Johnny Depp abused other domestic partners. At the moment, this remain unverified.
On Friday, Heard’s attorneys asked the judge to allow them to prove Depp has been violent towards other, past partners. It’s a claim Depp denies and says amounts to her going on a ‘fishing expedition’ to ‘harass’ him. The fact no other women have come forward and claimed abuse by Depp has been an important part in his defense. Nevertheless, rumors have persisted for years about altercations involving Kate Moss, Juliette Lewis, and Winona Ryder.
Heard’s team didn’t name other partners they claim he may have been abusive towards.
“He says he is not a perpetrator of domestic violence. So we have requested documents relating to Mr. Depp’s commission of domestic violence against other romantic partners,’ her lawyer, Ben Rottenborn, said.
Depp’s team protested the request, claiming it to be irrelevant. Depp’s lawyer then claimed that Heard was trying to “taint the jury” and harass the actor. In response, Judge Bruce White questioned why Depp would include his ex-wife’s past statements—as well as the assertion that he has never abused Heard—in the lawsuit if they weren’t relevant to the case. In response, his lawyer argued:
There are many reasons why things are said in complaints. Truthful statements are made. But whether that is a relevant issue for the case to allow open-ended discovery on, is a wholly different matter, Your Honor. Mr. Depp understood that this case is going to be in the public press. And so it’s important for him to say that. But what’s at issue is whether he abused Ms. Heard as she falsely claims.
That statement began an interesting interaction between Depp’s lawyer, Robert Gilmore, and Judge White, who grew increasingly skeptical of Gilmore’s tactics:
Judge White: Say that again. That Mr. Depp put that in his complaint because he knew that this would be in the press and it was important for him to put it in the press?
Gilmore: Mr. Depp —
Judge White: That’s the motivation for that being in the complaint? That’s what you’re saying on the record?
After that apparent admission by Depp’s legal team that his prior denials may have been to protect his public image, the judge immediately sided with Heard and ordered Depp’s medical and arrest record made available. Though Team Depp fought their release, they’ve consistently said Depp has nothing to hide.
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Winona Ryder has already publicly stated that Depp was never remotely abusive towards her & that none of their mutual friends had ever suggested he could be an abusive person. Kate Moss has made no public statements, but she has spoken highly of Depp over the years & only had good things to say about him in her memoirs too. Juliette Lewis has posted on her social media in support of him. Add to this the fact that his first wife & Vanessa Paradis have also spoken up for him (Paradis was on his witness list for the original case & called the claims against him ‘outrageous’) & you begin to see how Heard & Kaplan are really scraping the barrel with these discovery requests. In over 30 years working in Hollywood there has never been the slightest suggestion Depp was abusive towards women until Heard made her claims. No other woman has come forward at the time or in the years since. Her requests are a desperate attempt to dig up something, anything, that can be used to smear Depp’s character. This in itself highlights her own lack of credible evidence & witnesses. Your headline is extremely misleading & I can only imagine was used as click bait.
Kathryn, thanks for commenting.
This case has had so many twists and turns. Just when it looked like Mr. Depp was plowing ahead, Judge White’s ruling severely complicates it.
We’re well aware of the history of the case as well as the spin Mr. Depp’s fans and press agents have put on it. Your reply, while reasoned, is certainly not original.
We’re also aware, as are you, that it’s a well documented phenomena that abuse victims will often deny that abuse, forgive that abuse, make excuses for that abuse, and/or refuse to ever report it and/or decide not to press charges. It might be useful to point out none of the women in question have testified under oath.
As for the headline, it isn’t misleading it all. After Judge White’s ruling on Friday, several sources have reported this information may have already been obtained. The seasoned attorney’s on Ms. Heard’s team aren’t on a fishing expedition. They’re aware of something.
Finally, we can’t overlook WHY Judge White made his ruling, that is, that Mr. Depp put into his complaint that he’d never been abusive to women because he know the press would have access to the court proceedings. Read his lawyer’s exchange with the judge again.