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A friend of Amber Heard testified that a ‘wasted and screaming’ Johnny Depp charged at her whilst ‘swinging a magnum-sized bottle of wine’ on the night he allegedly hit the Aquaman actress.

Elizabeth Marz, a member of Heard and Depp’s inner-circle, claimed she was forced to hide in a gym room after the actor had ‘scared the sh** out of her’ when he charged at her during a fight with his ex-wife in 2016 at their Los Angeles penthouse.

Marz told the Virginia courtroom on Wednesday that Depp screamed at her and Heard’s friend Raquel ‘Rocky’ Pennington’ to ‘Get your bitch out of here’, apparently referring to his ex-wife.

Marz said when she saw Heard, she looked disheveled and had injuries on her face.

‘Her face was red and swollen. It looked like she had been hit in some way,’ Marz said in a November 2019 video deposition played for the courtroom on Wednesday.

Marz described Depp as ‘combative’ and upset on the May 21, 2016 incident where Depp allegedly assaulted Heard. He was ‘sloppy, and all over the place ..combative, angry,’ she said. 

She said: ‘He ran into the unit, and it scared the s**t out of me because he was wasted and screaming.

‘If there’s a grown ass man coming at you and saying ‘Get your b***h outta here’, and swinging a magnum-sized bottle of wine I’m sure anyone… would run out.’

Marz said that she hid in the house because she was afraid of what Depp would do, adding: ‘Everyone was just shaken up.’ 

She also said friends of the couple cleaned up part of the mess Depp allegedly left his penthouse in after the fight with Heard.

Marz’s testimony was corroborated by earlier testimony from Pennington who said she saw Depp wielding a wine bottle and that Heard had injuries to her face. 

Elizabeth Marz, a member of Heard and Depp's inner-circle, claimed she was forced to hide after the actor had 'scared the sh** out of her' when he charged at her during a fight with his ex-wife in 2016 at their Los Angeles penthouse

Elizabeth Marz, a member of Heard and Depp’s inner-circle, claimed she was forced to hide after the actor had ‘scared the sh** out of her’ when he charged at her during a fight with his ex-wife in 2016 at their Los Angeles penthouse

Heard's bruised face

Heard's bruised face

Marz’s testimony was corroborated by earlier testimony from Pennington who said she saw Depp wielding a wine bottle and that Heard had injuries to her face

She said when she first met Depp around 2012 he was 'bright and beautiful and lovely and kind and generous'. But if Depp was drinking or using drugs there was 'almost always a fight'

She said when she first met Depp around 2012 he was 'bright and beautiful and lovely and kind and generous'. But if Depp was drinking or using drugs there was 'almost always a fight'

She said when she first met Depp around 2012 he was ‘bright and beautiful and lovely and kind and generous’. But if Depp was drinking or using drugs there was ‘almost always a fight’

Pennington, who lived for a time in a suite of penthouses along with Depp and Heard, told the court on Wednesday she was the first person to see Heard during a final fight between the couple in May 2016 that precipitated the couple’s divorce.

Pennington said she interjected herself between the two and Depp knocked her hands away. She said she then covered Heard with her own body on the floor as Depp screamed at Heard to get up. She said she later saw Depp wielding a wine bottle to smash and knock things off the walls and counters.

The friend testified she saw the bruises and cuts left in the aftermath of multiple incidents of abuse inflicted by Depp.

In a recorded deposition played for jurors, Pennington said she never personally witnessed Depp strike Heard. But she said she saw the injuries, and she took photos of Heard’s face in December 2015 after a fight in which Heard says Depp head-butted her and perhaps broke her nose.

The photo shows a swollen nose, a cut lip, and two moderately black eyes on Heard’s face.

She also took a photo of strands of hair that she said were ripped from Heard’s scalp.

Heard ‘often had to cover bruises and injuries on her face’ with makeup, said Pennington, one of many witnesses whose testimony was previously recorded.

Pennington said she doesn’t really consider herself a current friend of Heard, and that the two grew apart in the last year.

Pennington wiped the tears from her eyes as she walked through photos of Heard's injuries including her swollen nose, her bloody lip and her bruised eyes

Pennington wiped the tears from her eyes as she walked through photos of Heard’s injuries including her swollen nose, her bloody lip and her bruised eyes

Pennington said that in the aftermath she saw blood in Heard's hair and a chunk of it had been 'ripped out'

Pennington said that in the aftermath she saw blood in Heard's hair and a chunk of it had been 'ripped out'

The questioning moved on to an incident in December 2015 when Heard claims that Depp headbutted her and repeatedly punched her in the head so hard that the bed frame she was lying on broke. Pennington said that in the aftermath she saw blood in Heard’s hair and a chunk of it had been ‘ripped out’

The court was shown photos of Heard with visible bruises on her face

The court was shown photos of Heard with visible bruises on her face 

The December 2015 fight is one of several disputed incidents. While jurors have seen the photos taken by Pennington documenting the injuries, they have also seen video of Heard’s appearance on a late-night talk show the next day in which those injuries aren’t visible.

Heard has said the injuries were covered by makeup.

Pennington’s testimony came after Heard wrapped up her time on the witness stand Tuesday, including two grueling days of cross-examination in which Depp’s lawyers questioned Heard about the truthfulness of her allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

Pennington’s testimony provides corroborating evidence to several of the alleged assaults. In addition to the December 2015 incident, Pennington said she saw cuts on Heard’s feet when she returned from a trip to Australia in March 2015. Heard testified that Depp sexually assaulted Heard with a liquor bottle on that trip and that she cut her feet on broken glass from the attack.

Later on Wednesday, Heard’s sister testified that she found herself in the middle of fights – literally and figuratively – between Heard and Depp during their troubled relationship.

Whitney Heard Henriquez is the first witness to testify at the five-week civil trial to say she personally witnessed Depp hitting Heard. Depp has testified he never struck Heard.

Henriquez testified the fight occurred in March 2015 – a month after Depp and Heard’s wedding – when Heard found evidence that Depp had already had an extramarital affair.

Henriquez recounted that an inebriated Depp blamed Heard for forcing him into the extramarital encounter.

At one point, she said, she was caught between Depp and Heard as he charged up a staircase to confront Heard. Henriquez said she was struck in the back, and Heard became enraged and ‘landed one’ on Depp, with Henriquez stuck between the two.

One of Depp’s bodyguards intervened and broke up the fight but ‘by that time Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly in the face with the other,’ Henriquez said.

It was the only time, Henriquez said, that she personally witnessed a physical assault. But she said she saw the aftermath of other fights, including bruises on Heard.

Amber Heard's sister Whitney Henriquez took the stand Wednesday and testified about their relationship

Amber Heard’s sister Whitney Henriquez took the stand Wednesday and testified about their relationship

She said she had the nickname ‘marriage counselor’ for her frequent efforts to mediate arguments between Heard and Depp.

‘Clearly not very well,’ she said of her mediation efforts.

But she acknowledged on cross-examination that she sided with Depp at times in their disputes, and said she worked to keep the couple together even after she watched her sister be physically assaulted.

‘If my sister said that she still wanted to be with Johnny and if I could help with that in any way I was going to support her. I was going to be there for her,’ she said.

Henriquez admitted that once, she even joked in a text message that Depp should hit Heard, but she said she didn’t really understand what her sister was going through at the time.

Henriquez also told the court about Depp’s behavior at Heard’s 30th birthday party in April 2016, one of the final fights between the couple. She said people took turns sharing favorite memories of Heard. Depp, who arrived late and intoxicated to the party, decided to tell a story about when he first met Heard as she auditioned for a movie and ‘she sat on the couch and her perfect (posterior) left the perfect imprint on the couch.’

‘We were all kind of embarrassed,’ Henriquez said.

Depp is suing Heard for libel in Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse.’ His lawyers say he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

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.

 

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