Amber Heard’s former assistant claims she never saw bruises or cuts on the actress in her three years employed and says she would fly into a ‘blind rage’ – once spitting in her face when she asked for a raise
- Amber Heard’s former personal assistant Kate James from 2012 to 2015 testified Thursday in Johnny Depp’s $100million defamation against the actress in Fairfax, Virginia
- Under questioning from Depp’s lawyers, James talked about how Heard would fly into a ‘blind rage’ at her during frequent abusive episodes
- James recalled one time where Heard ‘went absolutely ballistic. Screaming, yelling, abuse. Blind rage’
- James recalled how Heard would ‘scream over the phone’ at her and subjected her to ‘barrages of abusive text messages day and night’
- When James was switching from part time to full time work she was negotiating her salary with Heard, who lost her cool
- James said: ‘She leapt up out of my chair, put face four inches from my face, telling me how dare I ask the salary I was asking for. She felt that gave her the right to spit in my face’
Amber Heard’s former personal assistant claims she would fly into a ‘blind rage’ and said she never saw cuts or bruises on the actress during testimony in Johnny Depp’s $100million defamation case.
Appearing via a pre-taped video deposition Thursday, Kate James told the court she was hired by Heard in 2012 as her personal assistant and worked with her until 2015.
Under questioning from Depp’s lawyers, James talked about how Heard would fly into a ‘blind rage’ at her during frequent abusive episodes.
She told how one of her jobs was to get two copies of magazines that Heard appeared in and store them in the garage because she didn’t want Depp to see them. One time Heard ‘got very angry’ because they were lying around.
James said: ‘She went absolutely ballistic. Screaming, yelling, abuse. (It was a) blind rage.’
James recalled how Heard would ‘scream over the phone’ at her and subjected her to ‘barrages of abusive text messages day and night.’
She said: ‘The middle of the night I think, between 2 and 4am the barrage would start. All incoherent, not making sense, just someone to lash out at. No apparent reason to it.’
Asked if she ever say any injuries, cuts, bruises, swelling or redness to Heard’s face, James said: ‘No.’
She said that she ‘never’ saw Heard with black eyes or clumps of hair torn out of her head.
When James was switching from part time to full time work she was negotiating her salary with Heard, who lost her cool.
James said: ‘She leapt up out of my chair, put face four inches from my face, telling me how dare I ask the salary I was asking for. She felt that gave her the right to spit in my face’, adding that the $50,000 she asked for was half her usual salary.
A handyman who witnessed the whole thing was ‘mortified’, James claimed.
Amber Heard’s former personal assistant Kate James testified Thursday in Johnny Depp’s $100million defamation against the actress in Fairfax, Virginia
Appearing via a pre-taped video deposition, Kate James told the court she was hired by Heard in 2012 as her personal assistant and worked with her until 2015
Under questioning from Depp’s lawyers, James talked about how Heard would fly into a ‘blind rage’ at her during frequent abusive episodes
According to James, Heard was mean to her sister Whitney and treated her ‘like a dog you kick.’
Heard’s own mother was ‘terrified’ of her because she was abusive to her too, James claimed.
When James was switching from part time to full time work she was negotiating her salary with Heard, who lost her cool. James said: ‘She leapt up out of my chair, put face four inches from my face, telling me how dare I ask the salary I was asking for. She felt that gave her the right to spit in my face’, adding that the $50,000 she asked for was half her usual salary. They’re pictured shopping in 2012
Among the prescription drugs that Heard took was the sleeping aid Provigil but James claimed that the side effects sent Heard into a ‘manic episode.’
She said: ‘It was similar to if someone was on some sort of amphetamine drug. Moving very fast, hyper organizing, hyper tasking, just very, very hyper.’
James claimed that Heard told her she had taken mushrooms, ecstasy and cocaine and that it left her ‘disorientated’ and made her drink heavily and go out with her friends.
When Heard was intoxicated she ‘became more and more belligerent and abusive’, James said.
James claimed that Heard’s insecurities about her relationship were because she ‘didn’t like to be away from Johnny’s physical presence.’
James said that Heard didn’t like the crowd that Depp hung out with, either.
She said: ‘She told me she didn’t like hanging out in his house with his friends because it was boring and they were all old men playing guitars and it wasn’t interesting to her’ – sparking laughter from Depp.
Asked about her impression of Depp, James said he was ‘peaceful, almost shy, very quiet’ and called him a ‘total Southern gentleman.’
She never saw him loose his call and he was ‘always completely passive.’
She used to chat with him but James said she would ‘stop immediately when Amber saw me talking to him and would give me the evil eye.’
The court heard about the day in Mary 2016 when Heard arrived in Los Angeles having flown from Boston where he was supposedly abusive and drunk towards her.
James claimed that Heard went straight to the Chateau Marmont hotel to meet up with friends.
She described the atmosphere was ‘a little conspiratorial’, adding that it was ‘like a strategy meeting, combined with a pool party.’
James waited there with her son and eventually went home.
Asked about the episode by Heard’s lawyer Benjamin Rottenborn, James said she wasn’t concerned for Heard’s wellbeing because ‘it had become a pattern with her, I was merely placating her.’
She said: ‘They proceeded to hang out all day drinking while I sat around waiting with my son. We had to wait all day while they hung around drinking by the pool. Finally I went home.’
She went back to her apartment. Then Heard wanted her to pack her bags at 10pm on Sunday night.
‘I said I couldn’t go and pack her bag, I had put my son to bed. She was very angry
‘It was standard procedure at this point. She was a very dramatic person.’
James said that the job with Heard was ‘not really in my caliber’ because she worked with ‘high profile celebrities’ and hadn’t heard of her before
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s caustic relationship
February 3, 2015
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard marry in a private civil ceremony at their LA home, four years after they met as co-stars on the set of The Rum Diary. The couple celebrate with a lavish reception on an idyllic private island in the Bahamas that Depp bought in 2004 for $3.6 million.
April 21, 2015
Heard breaches Australia’s biosecurity laws when she and Depp fail to declare their two Yorkshire terriers when they arrive Down Under on a private jet for the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Heard admits falsifying quarantine documents and is placed on a $1,000 one-month good behavior bond.
May 23, 2016
Heard files for divorce after 15 months of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. Four days later a judge issues a temporary restraining order against Depp over domestic violence allegations. Pictures of Heard’s alleged injuries hit the tabloids but the LAPD finds no evidence of a crime.
August 16, 2016
Depp and Heard reach a $7 million divorce settlement which the actress promises to give to charity. Their marriage was ‘intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love,’ the former lovers say in a statement. ‘There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm’.
December 18, 2018
The Washington Post publishes an op-ed by Heard, an ambassador for women’s rights at for the American Civil Liberties Union, urging support for women who suffer domestic violence. ‘Two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,’ reads the headline.
March 1, 2019
Despite not being named in the article, Depp files a $50 million defamation suit in Fairfax Circuit Court, Virginia saying it implied he was an abuser and got him fired from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Depp dismisses Heard’s abuse allegations as a ‘hoax’ and claims he was actually the victim of her violence.
August 10, 2020
Heard countersues for $100 million, claiming vengeful Depp and his lawyer Adam Waldman targeted her with a vicious smear campaign, using media allies and internet trolls to amplify false stories about her and derail her acting career.
November 1, 2020
Depp faces an uphill battle to save his reputation after he loses a libel battle with a British tabloid that labeled him a ‘wife beater’. A judge in London’s rules that The Sun’s 2018 article was ‘substantially true’ and that the father-of-two had attacked Heard a dozen times, causing her to fear for her life on three occasions.
April 11, 2022
After lengthy delays due to the Covid pandemic, the former flames finally lock horns in Fairfax County, Virginia where the Washington Post servers that published the disputed op-ed are based. The trial is expected to last six to seven weeks and celebrities tipped to give evidence include James Franco, Paul Bettany and Ellen Barkin.
James, who was born in Australia, was hired by Heard after she got back from her wedding on Depp’s private island, claiming her mother was sick and she couldn’t afford to pay her any more.
James was questioned by Benjamin Rottenborn, one of Heard’s lawyers, and gave testy and snarky testimony.
James said that the job with Heard was ‘not really in my caliber’ because she worked with ‘high profile celebrities’ and hadn’t heard of her before.
She agreed with Rottenborn when he asked if she was ‘doing Heard a favor’ by taking the job.
It was only because it was billed as 20 hours a week and Heard let her pick up her four-year-old son Max at 3pm each day that she took the gig, James said.
Asked if she was paid for her work, she said: ‘Very poorly’, sparking laughter in court.
Rottenborn suggested she was paid $1,500 a week, and James said: ‘Are you kidding. I wish, <y god. She paid me $25 an hour to start with.’
‘She finally agreed after screaming abuse at me to pay $50,000 and this is after me working for 10 years as a personal assistant (during her career).
‘It was very insulting to me.’
Asked when she first became aware all ‘wasn’t right in the relationship’ between Heard and Depp, James said: ‘I don’t recall when it started. Usually her complaining and crying due to insecurities within the relationship. She would be very, very insecure a lot of the time and call me up crying’.
One time in 2012 or 2013 Heard called her while walking around the streets of New York, in a ‘very dysregulated state’ and James told her to get inside so paparazzi didn’t get a picture of her.
Asked if Heard ever told her Depp had hit her, James said no.
James said that she never saw any damage to Depp’s apartment either.
Rottenborn read out a text sent from Depp to James on August 13 2016, after his divorce from Heard.
It read: ‘Thank you, sweetheart… I’m disgusted that I ever f***in’ touched that scum… Back on Tuesday!!! And then… Court!!! Will hit you when I get back, doll… Come over for a spot of purple and we’ll fix her flabby ass, nice and good!!! Loveth… J’
James initially claimed that she didn’t know what ‘purple’ meant or who ‘flabby ass’ referred to.
Rottenborn referred James to her testimony in the defamation case brought by Depp in London in 2020 and she agreed that ‘purple’ referred to wine.
The woman with the ‘flabby ass’ was Heard, James said.
James said that the end of her job was a ‘bit of a shock, the feeling of being blindsided’.
She admitted that she asked Depp to live rent free in one of his houses and agreed with Rottenborn that she was in ‘fairly significant financial trouble’
James denied Rottenborn’s suggestion that she had ‘nothing but animosity’ towards Heard after they parted ways.
She said: ‘Any close relationship has ebbs and flows, it’s pretty standard. Things happen and life goes on’.
James bristled repeatedly when pressed to answer by Rottenborn.
Asked if she was saying that just because she never saw firsthand evidence of violence towards Heard by Depp it couldn’t have happened, she balked.
James said ‘That’s not what I said, you’re trying to put words in my mouth, I don’t appreciate that’.
In another retort she said: ‘Ask me the question in a clearer way’
When asked to explain her duties for Heard she sighed and said she would if they wanted to spend a ‘really long time explaining all the details’ before reeling off a list of her jobs like grooming the dogs and grocery shopping.
A rattled Johnny Depp stopped in his tracks today as a DailyMail.com reporter asked why anyone should believe his version of events in his epic $100 million defamation trial with Amber Heard
Deputies booted out several people over the course of the trial for breaching Judge Penney Azcarate’s tough rules on court conduct
A rattled Johnny Depp stopped in his tracks today as a DailyMail.com reporter asked why anyone should believe his version of events in his epic $100 million defamation trial with Amber Heard.
The Pirates of the Caribbean, 58, actor was greeted by a small haggle of fans and photographers as he emerged from his DC-area hotel just after 9:30am, wearing a black suit, blue shirt and black tie.
Depp, 58, smiled and waved before climbing into the back of a black Cadillac Escalade – only to abruptly hop out again when asked: ‘Why should we believe you and not Amber?’
The star looked irritated by the question but before he could respond aides blocked his path and a minder cut in to say: ‘Not this morning, not the time brother.’
Depp was then ushered back into the limo before it headed toward Fairfax County Circuit Court for the start of day four of the proceedings.
Deputies booted out several people over the course of the trial for breaching Judge Penney Azcarate’s tough rules on court conduct.
A young women was told by Fairfax County deputies she couldn’t go back into court Wednesday. A friend said it was over a tweet she had posted about Heard but wouldn’t say when it was posted or what was written.
The spectator had her court wristband chopped off and was told her picture would be kept at reception in case she tried to get back in, the friend added, refusing to give her name.
On Thursday another woman looked visibly upset as she was seen being marched from the building by three deputies who didn’t disclose the reason for the ejection.
Spectators were warned from day one that deputies would remove anyone who took their phone out, caused an outburst or was seen eating or drinking in court.
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