I saw Depp hit Heard and pull her hair – sis

Amber Heard’s sister testified yesterday that she found herself in the midst of battles – literally and figuratively – between her sister and Johnny Depp during their troubled relationship.

Hitney Heard Henriquez is the first witness to testify in the five-week civil trial that she personally saw Depp punch Heard. Depp has testified that he never hit Heard.

Ms Henriquez testified the fight took place in March 2015 – a month after Depp and Heard married – when Heard found evidence Depp was already having an extramarital affair.

Ms Henriquez said a drunken dork accused Heard of forcing him into the extramarital encounter.

At one point, she said, she was caught between Depp and Heard as he stormed up a flight of stairs to confront Heard. Ms Henriquez said she was punched in the back and Heard got angry and “landed one” on Depp, with Ms Henriquez stuck between the two.

One of Depp’s bodyguards intervened and stopped the fight, but “by this time, Johnny had already grabbed Amber’s hair with one hand and was repeatedly punching her in the face with the other,” Ms. Henriquez said.

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

She said she earned the nickname “marriage counselor” for her frequent efforts to mediate disputes between Heard and Depp.

“Clearly not very well,” she said of her mediation efforts.

But she admitted under cross-examination that she had sometimes sided with Depp in their arguments and said she worked to keep the couple together, even after seeing her sister physically assaulted.

“If my sister said she still wanted to be with Johnny and if I could help in any way with that, I would support her. I would be there for them,” she said.

Ms Henriquez admitted she once 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.

Ms. Henriquez also shared a story about Depp’s behavior at Heard’s 30th birthday party in April 2016, one of the last fights between the couple. She said people took turns sharing favorite memories of Heard. Depp, who arrived late and drunk at the party, decided to share a story about how he first met Heard when she was auditioning for a film and “she was sitting on the couch and her perfect (posterior) cast left the perfect one.” imprint on the couch”.

“We were all kind of embarrassed,” Ms. Henriquez said.

Depp is suing Heard for defamation in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia over a 2018 comment she wrote in the Washington Post She describes herself as a “public figure representing domestic violence”. His lawyers say he was defamed by the article, although he never mentioned his name.

Also yesterday, a friend of Heard’s said she saw the bruises and cuts left after multiple incidents of abuse by Depp.

In a taped testimony played for the jury, Raquel Pennington said she never personally witnessed Depp punch 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 said Depp headbutted her and might have broken his nose. The photo shows a swollen nose, cropped lip and two moderately black eyes on Heard’s face. She also took a photo of strands of hair, which she said were torn from Heard’s scalp.

Heard “often had to cover up bruises and injuries to his face” with makeup, said Pennington, one of many witnesses whose testimony was previously recorded.

The December 2015 fight is one of several controversial incidents. While the jury saw photos taken by Pennington documenting the injuries, they also saw video of Heard’s appearance on a late-night talk show the next day, in which those injuries are not visible.

Heard said the injuries were only covered up with makeup.

Pennington’s testimony came after Heard completed her time on the witness stand Tuesday, including two grueling days during which Depp’s attorneys questioned Heard about the veracity of her allegations

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