Johnny Depp wound up back on the stand after all – just not as a witness for Amber Heard’s team.
Depp’s own lawyers called the “Pirates” actor to the box on Wednesday, an unexpected move after Heard’s team reversed course and decided not to call him earlier this week. Heard’s defense has rested its case, and testimony is scheduled to conclude this week.
At this late stage in the trial, Depp’s attorneys seemed to be in mop-up mode, putting their client on the stand to go through a laundry list of rebuttals to details that Heard testified to over the past few weeks.
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 videoconference 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 even during their relationship, she used 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.”
This story is developing …