Johnny Depp's friend says Amber Heard's accusations 'wrecked' actor's life

Lawyers for actress say 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star's denials lack credibility because of past excessive alcohol and drug use

Actor Johnny Depp at his defamation trial against former wife Amber Heard at courthouse in Virginia, the US. Reuters

A longtime friend and next-door neighbour of Johnny Depp testified on Wednesday that the actor's former wife, Amber Heard, told him the star threw a phone at her and hit her inside the couple’s Los Angeles penthouse.

But Isaac Baruch said he never noticed any evidence of abuse on Heard’s face when he first saw her in the hallway or the next day in the sunlit lobby of their art deco-style building.

“She’s got her face out like this to show me and I’m looking, and I inspect her face,” Mr Baruch said of the encounter in May 2016. “And I don’t see anything … I don’t see a cut, a bruise, swelling, redness.”

He is the second witness called in the trial over Depp’s allegations that Heard falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser.

Depp says that an opinion piece Heard wrote for The Washington Post in 2018 indirectly defamed him.

Heard calls herself in the article as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”. It does not name Depp.

But his attorneys say it clearly referred to a restraining order that Heard sought in May 2016, right after Depp told her he wanted a divorce.

Depp denies abusing Heard.

Mr Baruch, a painter, has been friends with Depp since 1980. He also worked at the Viper Room when the Pirates of the Caribbean actor partly owned the famed Los Angeles club.

Mr Baruch said Depp had financially supported him, providing him with places to live and giving him about $100,000 over the years.

He testified that he noticed no makeup on Heard’s face when she said Depp hit her. But in cross-examination, Mr Baruch conceded he did not know if Heard had applied any concealer, foundation, powder or tint.

At one point, he became emotional, saying Heard should “take responsibility and move on".

Isaac Baruch speaks during Johnny Depp's defamation trial against his former wife Amber Heard at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Virginia. AFP

Mr Baruch said he never saw violence from Depp.

“His family has been completely wrecked by all of this stuff, and it’s not fair,” he said. “It’s not right, what she did … it’s insane.”

Heard’s lawyers have said the evidence will show that Depp physically and sexually assaulted Heard on more than one occasion.

They say that his denials lack credibility because he frequently drank and used drugs to the point of blacking out and failing to remember anything he did.

The first witness called for the trial was Depp’s older sister, Christi Dembrowski, who faced a barrage of questions from Heard’s lawyers about Depp’s alcohol and drug use.

Her lawyers zeroed in on a text exchange between Heard and Ms Dembrowski in February 2014.

“Ms Heard says, ‘JD is on a bender,’ and your response is, ‘Where are the kids?’ — correct?” Benjamin Rottenborn asked.

Ms Dembrowski said that was correct. She also confirmed a 2014 email exchange she had with a doctor who treated Depp’s addiction to pain medication.

Depp and Heard are expected to testify at the trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court, scheduled for six weeks, along with actors Paul Bettany and James Franco, and billionaire Elon Musk.