Amber Heard testified thatJohnny Depp controlled aspects of her life, from clothing to movie roles.- A legal expert said that may help jurors understand the dynamics of an abusive relationship.
During Amber Heard's trial testimony last week, she alleged Johnny Depp was not only physically abusive but also controlling.
She said he tried to command what kind of clothing she wore and which movie roles she took, adding that he even seemed to implant a nurse in her life to keep tabs on her.
Those narrative details, in concert with the allegations of abuse, may help jurors who aren't familiar with the aspects of abusive relationship dynamics understand why Heard didn't simply leave Depp earlier, Halim Dhanidina, a former Los Angeles judge who's overseen numerous domestic-violence cases, told Insider.
Heard took the stand for her legal battle with Depp, held in Fairfax County court in Virginia. Depp sued her in 2019, alleging she defamed him by publishing an op-ed in The Washington Post in which she described herself as a victim of domestic violence.
While she didn't name Depp, it was widely believed to be a reference to her relationship with him, which ended in 2016. He said the op-ed cost him his career. Furthermore, Depp alleged it was Heard who physically and verbally abused him during their years together.
Heard has countersued, alleging her claims of domestic abuse were accurate and outlining more detailed accusations of abuse. Her portrait of Depp as a monstrous, cocaine-addled abuser will no doubt linger in jurors' minds until the
But she didn't describe only incidents in which she alleged Depp beat her and penetrated her with a glass bottle. She also described Depp as appearing to try to control the minutiae of her life.
Heard testified that Depp introduced her to a doctor who assigned her a nurse to help address addiction issues.
Everything the nurse observed, Heard alleged, was reported to Depp.
"He also put a nurse on me that would be my travel companion, and that travel companion would keep tabs on me and report to Dr. Kipper, who reported everything to Johnny," Heard said.
"One thing we see in the courtroom is that arguments tend to resonate a little bit stronger with jurors if the jurors themselves can relate to them," Dhanidina, now an attorney at Werksman Jackson & Quinn LLP, told Insider. "These issues of control and interpersonal relationships and dynamics can be quite compelling if they ring true."
The details can give the jurors a narrative to grasp
Heard told jurors her relationship with Depp was so overwhelming that, starting in 2014, she stopped seeing her therapist.
"I couldn't sustain seeing her and be in the relationship with Johnny," she said. "And I chose Johnny."
Heard said there were other ways Depp denigrated her and cut her off from her own choices. She testified that Depp sneered at the movie projects she auditioned for.
"He would talk about other actresses who do my role in this way where they were worthless whores and that they were fame-hungry 'expletive expletive.' Just the point is, it felt really dirty to be an actor, never mind that he was one," Heard said on the stand.
The "whore" accusations extended to how Depp talked about how Heard dressed, she testified.
"It was like, 'Oh, really? That's what you're wearing? No wonder you get cast in those roles,'" Heard said. "And it just continued. And then there would be a blowup."
Heard testified that Depp or one of his employees was also sure to get copies of the scripts she read and the wardrobes for movies she was cast in. Depp "reluctantly agreed" to her acting in the 2015 male-stripper movie "Magic Mike XXL," she said, after much bargaining.
"I wasn't going to be playing a sexualized character," Heard said. "I wore minimal makeup in the movie — no sexy clothing, no kissing scenes, no sex scenes."
These narrative details, Dhanidina told Insider, may come up again in closing arguments as Heard's lawyers try to explain to the jury why they should believe her. Not all of them are likely to have experience with controlling relationships or understand why someone doesn't immediately leave after their partner throws the first punch, he said.
"You see that in court all the time, especially in the context of domestic violence where you may have some jurors feel like, 'Well, if someone is abusive to you, if they even say a mean word to you, obviously, you should just break up with them and never see them again,'" Dhanidina said. "And that opinion may be informed by that juror's own lack of familiarity with domestic-violence issues."
Depp's lawyers are likely to challenge that narrative in cross-examination, according to a person familiar with his legal team's thinking.
Heard is scheduled to continue her direct examination on Monday morning before Depp's lawyers begin cross-examining her in the afternoon.
Heard's managers or talent agents may or may not be able to be corroborate whether Depp interfered in her career choices.
And Depp's team may argue that no such pattern of controlling behavior existed. Vanessa Paradis, the French singer who Depp dated between the late 1990s and early 2000s, has modeled for photos while wearing little more than lingerie and has said Depp was "never violent or abusive" toward her.
Heard has also testified about how Depp was kind to her parents, and other witnesses have said that some of Heard's friends and family members lived rent-free in Depp's many apartments for extended periods of time, which may challenge the narrative that Depp tried to isolate and control her.
But it can also cut the other way, according to a person familiar with Heard's legal team's thinking — Depp may have expected his kindness toward Heard's friends and family to have been repaid with obedience.
Before Heard took the stand, her lawyers called the clinical psychologist Dawn Hughes to testify as an expert witness. Hughes discussed her evaluation of Heard's mental state, why she diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder, and why she said that diagnosis was rooted in the way Depp treated Heard.
That kind of expertise, Dhanidina said, is likely to help jurors understand the complex dynamics of interpersonal relationships and bolster Heard's case.
"This is something that we've seen in the research. It's a legitimate psychological phenomenon, just to help educate them," he said. "Because not all jurors are going to be able to understand evidence fully if they're limited, in part, by their own lack of experience."