Amber Heard’s former assistant claims she never saw any physical injuries while working for the actor and spoke about a time Heard ‘spat in her face’.
Kate James gave a digital deposition as part of Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, which started in Virginia this week.
James, who worked as a personal assistant for the Aquaman star for three years until 2015, was questioned over whether she saw Heard in a state of undress and putting on makeup.
Advert
After James said Heard ‘had no issue walking around naked quite often’, she was asked whether she saw the actor ‘with any types of injuries on her’.
This included ‘bruises’ and ‘swelling or redness in her face’, all of which James replied to with ‘no’.
When asked if she ever saw Heard with any ‘black eyes’, ‘a broken nose’ or ‘hair clumps missing’, James said: “Never.”
Advert
During her testimony, the former assistant was also asked to discuss times Heard was verbally abusive to her.
She told the court that there were ‘multiple times’ that Heard screamed at her over the phone, adding that her former boss would send ‘barrages of abusive text messages, day and night'.
She added: “Between 2 and 4am the barrage would start, that’s what I would wake up to. All incoherent, not really making sense, just basically someone to lash out at.”
James then went into detail about her negotiations with Heard when she was moving from full time to part time.
.webp)
She said: “I specifically remember standing in her office where she leapt out of her chair, put her face approximately four inches from my face, she was spitting in my face and telling me ‘how dare I ask for the salary which I was asking for’, which was in fact half of my regular annual salary.
Advert
“I was offering her that as a favour, and she felt that gave her a right to spit in my face.”
James added that the handyman of the apartment building Hector Galindo had witnessed the incident, and that he was ‘mortified and so embarrassed to hear her speaking to me like that’.
She also told the court that Heard was verbally abusive to her sister, Whitney Heard, describing it as a 'kick the dog' kind of relationship.
At the start of the testimony, the defence highlighted that James had never witnessed Heard be violent to Depp.
Advert
They also questioned whether she resented Heard for terminating her employment in 2015, to which James said: “It would’ve been nice to be given some notice so I had some time to look around.
“So I was a little upset for the lack of notice but apart from that no, I was not upset.”
.webp)
While currently unproven, James' account of her time working for Heard could have a bearing on the outcome of the trial.
Advert
Depp is seeking $50 million in damages after Heard claimed she was a victim of ‘sexual violence’ in the Washington Post in 2018.
Despite the op-ed article not naming Depp, he claims the piece ruined his reputation and career.
Featured Image Credit: Court TV/TwitterTopics: Johnny Depp, Crime
