One of the big reasons why I published that Amber Heard story on Sunday was because I thought that within the same 24-hour news cycle, we would get some leaks about what went down during Amber’s deposition, and I was prepared to do breaking-news coverage for it on Monday. TMZ had hyped this depo so hard, and everyone expected Amber to be “grilled” and for Team Depp to declare victory the second Amber’s story might have one small discrepancy or whatever. But something weird happened: throughout the day on Sunday, nobody leaked anything. It was odd. Especially considering that Amber was in that meeting/depo for more than nine hours on Saturday. Then on Monday, I got a partial answer to the question of “why hasn’t anyone leaked info from Amber’s depo?” The answer is strange though.
Amber Heard showed up for her deposition Saturday in her divorce/domestic violence case against Johnny Depp … but she never took the oath and never testified about a thing … sources connected to Amber tell TMZ. We’re told there was a videographer and court reporter present and Johnny’s lawyers were at the conference room table, but Amber never even walked in the room the entire day. She was in a nearby office.
Mind you … Amber showed up at around 11:30 AM — she was an hour and a half late — and didn’t leave until 9 PM. So, what happened inside the building? We’re told both sides were talking settlement but no deal was struck. As for why Amber never entered the room, much less answered questions the entire day … it’s a mystery.
That was TMZ’s initial story, that Amber came late but that she just sat in a room for nine-and-a-half hours and no one did anything. Very strange. A few hours after TMZ broke that news, Amber’s team sent out information to TMZ and other outlets. Her rep told TMZ:
“Although she was ready, willing and able to go forward with her deposition, it was not taken by Johnny’s attorneys. She waited for 10 hours and at no time did Amber ever refuse to start the deposition. There was nothing preventing Johnny’s counsel from commencing the deposition.”
Amber’s rep also says that Amber wasn’t really 90 minutes late to the deposition either – while the deposition was scheduled for 10 am, she called ahead of time and Depp’s lawyers knew she was going to be there closer to 11 am on Saturday, and that when she showed up at the law offices, she was “blindsided by paparazzi.” Interestingly enough, Amber’s rep also told TMZ that Johnny Depp was originally scheduled to be deposed by Amber’s lawyers on Wednesday but now he’s saying he can’t make it. And TMZ has a new story about the “mountain” of evidence Team Depp has gathered that “proves” Depp never assaulted Amber – go here to read. It basically sounds like Depp’s got a lot of employees going on the record about how they never saw anything. Weird, right? That people who would depend on Depp for their livelihood would say that he’s not an abuser? And why can’t Depp be deposed on Wednesday? Oh, right, he’s on vacation.
The NYDN went a little bit further to explain the fact that Amber was never deposed. Apparently, she just sat there as her lawyers and Depp’s lawyers tried to negotiate a “global resolution on all issues,” and at one point, Amber even got up to start the deposition but the lawyers went back to discussing the terms of a potential settlement. What do you think? Do you think Depp and Heard are going to get this sh-t settled by Monday the 15th? I suspect if they do work out a settlement, it will be hammered out at the very last minute, like 6 a.m. Monday morning.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Looks like Team Depp is back to working TMZ hard…
100% the day before the “trial” there will be a settlement. Depp isn’t done dragging Amber through the mud though. Sick, and just another form of mental torture.
Exactly. His lawyer has TMZ on speed dial but apparently SHE is the one who needs a gagging clause.
Team Depp? The TMZ blurb above, and all the other sites reporting on this, says that Amber Heard’s Team leaked this information. Other sites (I visited several … pro and con both parties) are also indeed reporting that Johnny Depp’s lawyers have said that their client won’t be deposed until Amber Heard has been deposed. If Amber wasn’t deposed on Saturday, then Depp won’t be deposed on Wednesday.
TMZ also denied that they get information from Kris Jenner. I definitely don’t trust them when it comes to sourcing.
I don’t want this to be settled. I want this to be judged. Very publicly.
Yes. I know the most important thing is her well well being, but god I wish she could drag him down.
Oh god yes ! know this is very wrong of me and I am sure the more the case is dragging out the more it is hurting Amber but goddamn do I want the public to turn against this scarved monster
I want it to be public, too. I think if Johnny settles, people will write Amber off as an extortionist. Let’s get his abuse out in the open and in a court of law. Let’s make sure people know what he is.
Could TMZ be any more obvious that they’re team Johnny? The wording is very deliberate.
but she never took the oath and never testified about a thing …
Johnny’s lawyers were at the conference room table, but Amber never even walked in the room the entire day. She was in a nearby office.
Mind you … Amber showed up at around 11:30 AM — she was an hour and a half late —
And of course much ado was made of Amber’s rescheduling her deposition but now it’s Johnny’s turn to be deposed and he ‘can’t make it’ I’m sure his reasons will be considered quite legitimate by TMZ. SMH.
@I Choose Me …
But other sites are saying the same thing and also claiming that Heard’s attorney leaked the news.
Most sites copy and paste from TMZ.
It kills me too that other sites just copy & paste TMZ’s skewed comments so people read the same thing over again & take it as true.
Emma if Amber’s lawyers had leaked the news, they wouldn’t have had to issue a clarification to TMZ.
They will settle, and she will walk away with a significant, but undisclosed amount. She will do it because she knows she can’t win in court, and given the level of hatred aimed at her by Depp’s fans, she wouldn’t have any hope of a career left. She barely has one now, but if Disney quietly stepped in, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her in some Disney movies in the future.
She tried, but I think she made some bad mistakes (her and her legal team) if she ever planned on seeing this through and actually pressing charges for DV. My feeling now is that everything she did was with an eye towards a settlement. But I don’t actually blame her, she probably knew that would be her best likely outcome. Going against Depp with the DV claim would have won her nothing – not because it isn’t real, but because unless he pulled a gun and shot her in plain view, most people wouldn’t believe her. (And frankly, if the non-believers are the Trump supporters, they would make excuses even then – she provoked him, his mom had just dies, etc.) Sad commentary for us all.
Very sad. From the outset it seemed like she just wanted to get out, get an appropriate settlement and go on her way, not sure why this invoked so much bad feeling, it happens all the time. MANY people settle for the right amount in cases involving serious harm, disability or even death when it involves a wealthy corporation/institution or someone on JD’s level who has the power and money to fight hard, long and dirty.
Not saying that she is not in the right, but given his list of “proof” vs hers…She would get raked in court.
Whenever I have to do anything involving attorneys, I clear the entire day and take snacks and a long book. Even so, a nine hour wait seems excessive, even for lawyers. Perhaps this is their strategy for settlement negotiation. I feel that it’s a way to continue the abuse and control when they force someone to leave work, travel a long distance, wait around all day and accomplish nothing except getting a new court order to do it all again over and over. That alone would break me, and she’s also got to deal with leaks to TMZ, and crazed internet trolls and possible Hollywood blacklisting. This whole thing is so ugly and vile. I hate seeing this side of humans.
Ugh. Poor Amber. The deck is stacked against her – no way is the justice system going to support her side over that of a rich, connected man. How depressing.
Perhaps if her case was more compelling, the justice system would award in her favor. She was already ordered to depo by the judge of the court. They gave her her fair share of chances, its no-one’s fault but her own for f—ng everything up. Let her take responsibility for her own actions.
You clearly have no experience with the justice system when it comes to abused women or incredibly rich and powerful celebrities.
“Let HER take responsibility for her own actions?!” What about HIM?!!
I 100% believe that Amber was abused by Johnny. However, him being a sinner doesn’t make her a saint.
If you call ahead the morning of an appointment to say that you will be AN HOUR late and then end up walking in a full 90 minutes after you were scheduled to be there, that doesn’t negate you being a full 90 minutes late. Lawyers charge for every minute, Amber knows that, and this was scheduled in advance. At that point, it wasn’t like they could add in another meeting or something on such short notice, the time was wasted.
I also hate when people say “Well I was really only an hour late, but it took me 30 minutes to park.” You’re STILL 90 minutes late, that extra 30 minutes that you kept people waiting doesn’t vanish.
I think there are a lot of tactics at play here. Depp’s lawyers said they wouldn’t do Saturday, so the court sets the time and date. Depp’s lawyers and the court officials turn up 20 minutes early, Heard turns up 90 minutes late. Depp’s lawyers do not depose Heard and they can probably justify that in terms of legal procedure due to her lateness, but it also means they cannot depose Depp before the hearing. Maybe Depp’s lawyers set a trap and Heard fell for it?
I don’t think Depp’s lawyers set a trap. It’s not like they locked her in her garage, she was late of her own accord and they had no way of predicting that. They have taken advantage of it after she failed to arrive on time, but I don’t see how it was premeditated.
If she had a long history of not turning up or being very late then they might have judged it would be a likely outcome. But I guess they probably did intend to depose her, but had a back up plan just in case. I think their case will be that Amber is a liar with no respect for the legal system, perhaps they feel that reinforcing that will be more useful than trying to trip her up in a deposition.
It’s not like she’s paying for her lawyer anyway. Another way to screw JD, by her lawyer getting paid when AH hadn’t even shown up yet!
Johnny Depp can only get statements from the people he pays? That is such a sad statement on him as a person.
I read the two police officers, Heard’s press agent and Heard are also being called by Depp. They are also submitting a photograph which is being handled in such a way as to suggest it is very personal, perhaps explicit. They are either calling witnesses or providing evidence on Heard’s DV arrest and the Australian dog case. They are clearly going to try an establish that Heard is violent and will lie to police and court officials. The police and his employees will then all say they saw no injuries. The press agent is interesting because they are suggesting he was present during her discussions with her lawyer and he would not be protected by client-lawyer privilege. I know the lawyers cannot testify against Heard, but maybe they could force her lawyer to say whether or not the press agent has lied on the stand. If the photo involves one of Heard’s witnesses that could be very damaging too, especially if it is the one who made a point of saying she loved Depp but had no choice but to speak up. There is a lot going on here.
The list includes his ex Vanessa, who was with him for 14 years.
There’s a lot of things here:
1. Heard has failed to be disposed yet again. This is not a good mood in the eyes of the court hat she plays fast and loose. Don’t show up late for court. That’s a no and it doesn’t matter WHAT happened to you it doesn’t get you sympathy (this according to my ADA family members…they hate lateness)
2. Depp is not failing to show up to court because of vacation in Wednesday. He won’t be disposed until Amber is so again that’s on her team.
3. I hope Amber wins her case but let’s not pretend she has a halo above her head. She was problematic (to me) before and my feelings about her has not changed. Just because she’s a DV victim does not mean she’s not also a terrible person.
4. Depp is an even worse person and I wish he would go to jail for what he did
5. This case is a mess and I have no love for either side now
THIS! The fact that he is a sinner, doesn’t make her a saint. i 100% believe she was abused, but I also believe she had $$ in her eyes from day one of beginning a relationship with him.
@Nicole – Everything you said.
More eloquently put than what I wanted to say, but agree 100%.
I also believed that because of how messed up the justice system gets when it comes to rich, famous folk, she’s gonna have to choose – money or justice for the DV. I somehow don’t think she’ll get both.
This is exactly how settlements work. Each party and their counsel in separate rooms with a neutral (or a key person from each side if no neutral) meeting, literally, in the middle on neutral ground. Not a surprise she never entered the room. Not a surprise she was not deposed. The testimony she gives and the leaks that come from it are a chip in the negotiations.
Signed,
A litigator.
Who do you think decided that she wouldn’t be deposed?
Cosign!
A litigator’s wife
I normally do not believe her, but I do in this instance. If Depp’s lawyers were serious about deposing her, they would have rescheduled the deposition and cited her for contempt. They would have also cited for contempt if she had refused the deposition, not “negotiate” with her lawyers for several hours while she sits around, waiting. I think they most likely tried to strong-arm a deal, but she refuses to settle. She is submitting her medical records as well as audio and video clips of Depp treating her badly. I think she’s serious about this case. Unfortunately, she will not win, as Depp has a slew of “witnesses” (employees and people on his payroll) to testify against her.
The police testimony is useless. Bruising does not occur until hours to days after impact. Her face would have been red at best when they arrived and that is not evidence of injury since redness is more commonly caused by crying and stress. The police came to her place. She said it was a verbal argument. There would have been no evidence there. As for them saying they saw nothing broken in the loft, were they even able to search her house? Knowledge of the law tells me they would not have been able to search her house unless she gave consent, which she didn’t, as per their own statement, she was uncooperative and refused to press charges.
The concierges are also foolhardy. Normally, Amber, and many other women for that matter, walk around with makeup on, not with bruises across their face. Furthermore, TMZ tried to use that picture of her at Amanda de Cadenet’s party with her hair covering where the bruise was as evidence that there was no bruise. That’s beyond idiotic.
The rest of the testimonies are obvious character assassination. She has a record, blah blah blah blah. Somehow having a rotten character is supposed to mean a person is impervious to having a crime committed against them. Tale as old as time. I’ve seen that a dozen times in criminal cases.
But she will lose in court because Depp is simply too powerful and I don’t believe this is about money at all. Who goes through this humiliation and embarrassment, knowing that they will lose in court against one of the most powerful celebrities in the world? That isn’t going to get her more money. It will just hurt her. If it were about the money, she would have settled on Saturday or any of the dozen times before they offered a settlement.
Anyway, Depp is cowardly scum to me — more so than Amber. His P.R. team is also despicable.
Guess what?? Wasser just filed. Amber refused twice. TMZ has it.
Not her “medical records”, but a picture of her holding a bottle of medication from 2014!? Lmao.
As a nurse I can say that bruising can and does happen immediately! And her friend stated she “saw it there”, but then the LAPD see nothing?!
“…Who goes through this humiliation and embarrassment, knowing that they will lose in court against one of the most powerful celebrities in the world?…”
Someone with a tremendous sense of self-importance and entitlement, that’s who.
And lastly, see TMZs newest article about court documents filed by Laura Wasser re: why AH wasn’t deposed on Sat!
Now they are saying that she threw a fit at the courthouse. I guess we shall see because if the judge takes action then it’s probably true. If not team Depp is full of it yet again
If court officials were present then it will be very clear what happened.