Culture

Every Time Johnny Depp’s Attorney Camille Vasquez Tore Apart Amber Heard's Testimony In Cross-Examination

Last week, Johnny Depp’s younger and less experienced attorney, 37-year-old Camille Vasquez, surprised everyone and took the internet by storm after demolishing Amber Heard’s testimony, bit by bit.

By Jaimee Marshall7 min read
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Camille Vasquez poured through Amber Heard’s previous statements to point out inconsistencies, warned her of the penalty she would face for perjury, and exposed just how committed Heard is to gaslighting the courtroom before our very eyes. Heard remained confident and defiant in her answers, despite blatantly being caught in lies or being shown videos or audio recordings that directly disproved her statements. Heard would revert to a difference of opinion, a disagreement in semantics, or try to sidestep the question. 

Vasquez came in swinging, repeatedly poking the bear to see if she would budge – and budge, she did. Vasquez made it clear from the outset that she wasn’t going to go easy on Heard. Vasquez spoke to Heard in an almost taunting tone, insisting that Heard had plenty of photos of Depp sleeping, but didn’t produce photos of several brutal beatings that she described, nor did she produce any medical records that she sought treatment. There was a particularly bizarre moment where Heard appears to have an outburst of anger at the suggestion that she was a victim of domestic violence. Vasquez didn’t mince words when she questioned Heard on the stand, insisting that it was Heard who was the real abuser in this relationship and that she continued to abuse Depp publicly by falsely accusing him of domestic violence.

In a strong open to her cross-examination, Vasquez pointed out that Depp has been unable to look at Heard throughout this entire trial, but Heard has looked at him plenty. Vasquez questioned Heard, “You know exactly why Mr. Depp won’t look back at you, don’t you?” Heard responds affirmatively, “I do.” An audio recording was then played of Depp, promising that Heard would never look him in his eyes again after she publicly accused him of domestic violence. This was only the start of the damning cross-examination that set back Heard’s testimony into the realm of “questionable,” to say the least.

Jury Sees the Knife That Amber Heard Gifted to the Man She Claims She Feared

One moment during the cross-examination that could have a big impact on the jury is when Vasquez had a deputy sheriff bring out the actual knife that Heard gifted to her husband the very same year she claims the domestic abuse began. While the jury had seen photographs, seeing the sheer size of this knife in person is something else entirely. After confirming that she had previously gotten the abuse timeline wrong and correcting her previous accounts of the abuse starting in 2013, Heard insisted that Depp began to get violent in 2012. When asked about this discrepancy in the timeline, she insisted that she had wanted to believe that the abuse hadn’t started so soon in the relationship. 

However, it was in 2012 that Heard gifted a knife to Depp for his birthday. After Heard confirmed that she had given a large knife as a present to the man she accused of being erratic, violent, and drunk, Vasquez asked an officer to bring it out to show the jury. This was a damning moment for Heard’s side of the story because this was no small weapon. Vasquez put the final nail in the coffin, saying, “That’s the knife you gave to the man that was hitting you, right, Ms. Heard?” 

“I wasn’t worried he was going to stab me with it when I gave it to him, that’s for certain,” said Heard. On that same knife was an inscription in Spanish that read “hasta la muerte,” which translates to “until death.” While Heard insists that Depp had “taken a break” from violence in the middle of 2012, gifting a knife to the man you fear is going to kill you with the writing “until death” doesn’t exactly sound like the behavior of someone afraid for their life.

Heard Admits To Failing To Donate Her Divorce Settlement to Charity

Another viral moment that was shared like wildfire all over social media was the back and forth between Vasquez and Heard concerning what happened to the $7 million Heard had earned in the divorce settlement. While Heard had originally promised to donate the entire $7 million to charity, splitting it between the ACLU and CHLA, Vasquez revealed that she never donated any of this money. What’s worse, she not only pledged to donate the money, but she repeatedly claimed that she had already donated the full $7 million. Vasquez got Heard to admit that she received her entire divorce settlement by 2018, which was 13 months before Depp sued her. 

Heard received her entire divorce settlement by 2018, which was 13 months before Depp sued her. 

“In this October 2018 interview, you said you had donated the entire divorce settlement to charity, right?” Vasquez asked Heard. Heard affirmed, “That's correct.” “But you hadn’t donated your entire $7 million to charity at that point, had you? Sitting here today Ms. Heard, you still haven’t donated the $7 million divorce settlement to charity, isn’t that right?” To which Heard replied, "Incorrect, I pledged the entirety of the settlement, $7 million, to charity and I intend to fulfill those obligations.”

Vasquez stopped Heard in her tracks and redirected her to the question that was being asked, “Ms. Heard, that’s not my question." In a frankly embarrassing and damning strike on Heard’s credibility, she insisted that she uses “pledge” and “donate” synonymously and tried to use semantic games to wiggle herself out of perjuring herself. “Ms. Heard, I don’t use it synonymously,” Vasquez quipped. It was a heated back and forth exchange, but Heard finally conceded that she was unable to fulfill her pledge to donate $3.5 million to both the ACLU and the CHLA despite testifying under oath that she had. However, she attributed this failure to be the result of Depp suing her, even though he sued her 13 months after she received the entire settlement.

Photographic Evidence, and Lack Thereof, Called into Question

While Heard claimed that Depp had repeatedly punched her in the face with his knuckles that were adorned with rings, the only material evidence she produced of this event was a photograph of her with a bruise on her arm, yet her face remained uninjured. Heard claimed that in March 2013 Depp grabbed her and hit her so many times in the face that she couldn’t remember. Not only did Heard not produce any photographic evidence of these facial bruises, but she didn’t seek medical attention either. 

There are no medical records showing that Heard was ever injured throughout the entire relationship. There is also an abundance of photos taken directly after what Heard describes as brutal beatings that show she has no injuries on her face or body. Vasquez showed photos to the jury that were taken shortly after Heard claimed she was whacked in the nose so hard that she started bleeding and believed she had a broken nose. Yet, you can see no injuries, blood, or swelling around her nose in photographs taken the following night. Heard claimed that, while makeup will not cover swelling, icing her injuries did. 

Vasquez also pressed Heard on her testimony about a separate incident in Australia in March 2015, where Heard testified she had cuts on her forearms and the bottoms of her feet and bruises on her jaw from being clocked in the face. However, she provided no photographic evidence of these injuries, nor are there any medical records that she sought medical treatment, even though she had her phone and iPad with her and was taking photos of the mirrors that Depp allegedly drew on. Heard also claimed she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle and bled from her vagina but did not need to seek medical treatment. 

Heard testified about another incident in December 2015, "I thought I probably had a concussion and certainly that I had a broken nose. There was blood everywhere, blood all over the pillows, my head was bleeding from the ripped out hair, chunks of hair on the floor, all over the place actually." She also claimed that this incident left her with two black eyes and a busted lip that kept reopening, as well as bruising on her temple and chin. 

However, Vasquez played clips from Heard on the James Corden show the following night, showing a remarkably fresh-faced Heard without any visible injuries, let alone the types of brutal injuries we would expect from her description. Heard can be seen making very animated faces, smiling very wide, and scrunching up her nose, despite her claims that she had a split lip and a broken nose that would make this endeavor very difficult and painful. Upon looking at the photos of her alleged injuries from the incident, they leave a lot to be desired. The photos show Heard with some slight discoloration around her eyes and a small cut on her lip. After this incident, she saw Dr. Kipper to check if she had a concussion without disclosing the incident. He did not report any injuries and wrote down descriptions of her skin being intact. 

There are no medical records showing that Heard was ever injured throughout the entire relationship.

Heard claims it’s “not her job” to present evidence of her injuries, implying a failure on the part of her lawyers. Ouch, now her own legal team is being thrown under the bus? Vasquez pressed Heard’s lack of evidence for her claims and asked why she presented so many photos of Depp sleeping but not photos of vital evidence that are crucial to proving her claims. Heard didn’t appear afraid of any consequences of taking photos of Depp while he was sleeping. Even in Australia, when she took photos of the mirrors that bore writing all over them, she stood just out of view of the mirror so no one could see her reflection. Another photograph that was called into question was a breakfast table that Vasquez asked Heard questions about to determine if it was staged. There were 3 unsnorted lines of cocaine on the table, an unsmoked cigarette in a clean ashtray, and full glasses of alcohol that were not consumed.

Heard Sounds Like the Aggressor on Audio Recordings Played for Jury

Multiple audio recordings were played for the jury, revealing a very aggressive sounding Amber Heard, who admitted to slamming the door on Depp’s face in the recording after chasing him through five bathrooms and multiple bedrooms. After the recording was played, she continued to deny that’s what she said. 

Other recordings revealed her sounding anything but afraid of Depp, hurling insults at him about how his son’s stepfather could teach him more about being a man than he could and repeatedly telling Depp “suck my d***”. She even laughs at him while calling him taunting names like a sellout, a joke, and a washed-up piece of sh*t. This, along with a slew of text messages she sent to Depp when he was ignoring her, begging for his forgiveness and to please respond to her, shows a side of Heard that doesn’t appear to fear Depp. If anything, she appears to be the aggressor.

Another audio recording was played for the jury, where Heard says, “I can’t promise you I won’t get physical” and “God, I f**king sometimes get so mad, I lose it.” She then fights with Depp for “splitting at the beginning of fights.” These recordings demonstrate that Depp was the one running away from physical fights, not perpetuating them. In this recording, Depp confronts Heard about punching him and you can hear her say that she didn’t punch him, she was “hitting him” and calls him a baby for complaining about it. 

Another recording is played, where you can hear Depp recounting what happened during their fight. He talks about how Heard followed him around the house as Depp tried to hide in bathrooms and bedrooms. As Heard was trying to break through the door Depp was hiding behind, he says that he accidentally scraped her toes with the door, and when he went to check on her, she kicked the door into his head and as he stood up, she clocked him.

Videos of Heard’s Deposition Show Her Rolling Her Eyes and Caught in a Lie

The audio recordings that we just discussed were previously played for Heard during a 2016 deposition for her divorce. Vasquez played this video for the jury, which shows Heard listening to the audio with a starkly different attitude and demeanor. As she’s being deposed to discuss and listen to recordings of a volatile relationship where she claims to be a victim of abuse, she’s sitting there the entire time, eating and brushing crumbs off the table. She doesn’t seem distressed, sad, or upset. 

As the recording where they're discussing Heard hitting Depp plays, she smiles and then rolls her eyes when Depp says that she punched him in the jaw. In the video, Heard reverts to her semantic games, asserting that the only reason that Depp said she clocked him in the jaw and she didn’t deny it is because Depp was “very dramatic” when he got hurt and that she wouldn’t get into what those words mean to him. 

Heard remained confident and defiant in her answers, despite blatantly being caught in lies.

Vasquez pressed her about smiling during the recording, saying, “Is there something amusing about kicking a door into your husband’s head? Is there something amusing to you about punching your husband in the jaw?” 

As the recording of the deposition continued, Heard talked about why she was reaching out to Depp about filing divorce papers. "I didn't want him to find out online that I had or was about to file or I had already filed for divorce. I wanted him to know verbally, so I was trying to reach him through a 3rd party to tell him. I'm specifically saying I would like him to know information coming from me so that he finds out about the divorce filing from some other source other than TMZ, which was alerted." 

As Heard mentions TMZ, she draws her hands into her face and trails off, as if she just let the cat out of the bag. "You slipped up there didn't you, Ms. Heard? You let it slip out that TMZ had been alerted to your filing of the domestic violence restraining order, didn't you?” Vasquez asked. 

Heard merely responded, “I disagree, that’s not what I’m talking about.” "TMZ is the same outlet that you released the video of Mr. Depp attacking the kitchen cabinets the day before this deposition was taken, wasn't it?” asked Vasquez, to which Heard denied she ever sent them any footage. However, TMZ owns the copyright to that video, so it had to come from somewhere.

Vasquez Brings Up Previous Domestic Violence Charge against Heard

Finally, before ending her line of questioning, Vasquez brought up one final blow against Heard – her previous domestic violence charge in 2009. This door has been opened, seemingly because Heard herself brought up her former partner Tasya Van Ree when she claimed that Depp wanted to take down a painting of hers that she had hung up in her house. Vasquez was able to bring up to the jury that Heard’s violence against Depp wasn’t an isolated incident – she has a pattern of this and was seen in public hitting her partner in the airport, according to a police report. While Vasquez appeared unable to bring up the police report, she did make the jury aware that this was reported in the press. 

Closing Thoughts

We have one week left of this trial, and Heard’s team is set to call Depp back to the stand. This cross-examination has done Heard no favors, as the information that Vasquez was able to delve into is significant in making the case that Depp has been falsely accused and that Heard was the true perpetrator of violence in this relationship. Not only was Vasquez’ cross-examination a slam dunk, but Heard’s lawyer struggled immensely under redirect, as she was unable to get any of her questions out due to constant objections by Vasquez, which were repeatedly sustained by the judge. Proceedings are set to end on May 27, and then the jury will deliberate on a verdict.

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