Johnny Depp‘s legal team called witnesses for the second day amid the actor’s defamation case against Amber Heard. On Wednesday, Depp’s older sister, Christi Dembrowski, wrapped up her testimony and called Heard “dramatic.” Dembrowski previously opened up about how she and Depp were verbally and physically abused by their mother, and that her brother promised “never” to repeat that behavior.
Dembrowski, who worked as Depp’s personal assistant for years, claimed she never witnessed or knew that her brother was abusing drugs. Heard’s legal team hit back at that in court, bringing up a text from 2014 in which she allegedly wrote to Depp: “Stop booze. Stop pills. Stop coke.” Heard has claimed she was the victim of abuse on at least 14 instances, many of which allegedly occurred while the actor was high or drunk.
“Christi Dembrowski was confronted with more than eight texts or emails in which she’s clearly acknowledging her brother’s addiction issues, yet she tried to hedge and downplay their significance and claimed no personal knowledge of them,” a source close to the trial tells Yahoo Entertainment. “It’s just not credible that she didn’t know about his severe addiction issues and the damage they were causing to his relationship with Amber and to his career.”
Related video: Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of multiple sexual assaults during marriage
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in which she said she’s “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” Heard, who never named Depp in the article, is countersuing for $100 million. The actor claims he suffered irreparable damage to his career and family, something his childhood friend spoke about on Wednesday morning.
Isaac Baruch took the stand after Dembrowski and became emotional during cross-examination when describing how Heard’s “malicious” abuse claims impacted Depp. “[Johnny’s] family has been completely wrecked by all of this stuff,” he told the court.
“So many people have been affected by this malicious lie that she started and she created. It’s not fair, it’s not right what she did, and what happened,” he said, choking up. “For so many people to get affected from this, it’s insane, how this happened.”
During cross-examination, Baruch confirmed that Depp called Heard a “c***,” but downplayed the seriousness of it saying he, too, had been called the c-word by the actor. Baruch corroborated a separate explicit text, in which Depp wrote he hoped the actress’s “rotting corpse is decomposing in the f****** trunk of a Honda Civic.”
Baruch lived for free in one of Depp’s penthouses in downtown Los Angeles for more than three years. (He’s currently living in one of the actor’s houses.) He was neighbors with Depp and Heard, whom Baruch was friendly with, even remarking how “she has great teeth” making the courtroom — and even Heard — laugh.
During Depp and Heard’s four year relationship, Baruch said he witnessed two arguments, but “never” saw Depp hit the Aquaman star.
“Have I ever seen him be violent to her with physicality? No,” he testified.
However, Baruch said Heard told him in May 2016 that Depp got “violent” and threw a cell phone at her which hit her in the face. She was in the process of changing the locks on the apartment and Baruch said he was standing close to the actress in good lighting. Baruch testified that he saw no visible marks on Heard’s face and said she was not wearing makeup. (During cross-examination, he told Heard’s lawyers he couldn’t say for a fact whether she had on some type of concealer or cream.)
Baruch saw Heard several days following the May 21, 2016 incident and said that he saw “no cuts, no bruises, no swelling, no redness.” When Heard filed for divorce and paparazzi photographed her with a bruise on her face, Baruch was shocked. He said Heard knocked on his door days later and he told her he could not continue a friendship with her.
Depp’s legal team is starting to hone in on Heard’s relationship with Elon Musk. Baruch testified he saw Musk twice at the property after May 2016: once getting into the elevator and another time exiting Depp and Heard’s balcony. Heard dated the Tesla CEO after filing for divorce. It’s unclear if he will be among the potential star witnesses.
