Amber Heard reports alleged domestic violence by Johnny Depp to police
Amber Heard has reported estranged husband's Johnny Depp's alleged abuse to the Los Angeles Police Department. Here, Heard and Depp leave the Southport Magistrates Court in Southport, Australia, on Monday, April 18, 2016. Credit: AFP, Getty Images / Patrick Hamilton
Amber Heard, stung by social-media reaction to her not giving a police statement on the night of alleged domestic violence by husband Johnny Depp, has now spoken with the Los Angeles Police Department.
“As the result of Amber’s decision to decline giving an initial statement to the LAPD, her silence has been used against her by Johnny’s team,” attorneys Samantha F. Spector and Joseph P. Koenig said in a nearly 500-word statement. The actress, 30, “did not provide a statement to the LAPD in an attempt to protect her privacy and Johnny’s career,” the attorneys continued, adding, “With her statement Amber hopes to give the LAPD the opportunity to conduct an accurate and complete investigation into the events of that evening and before.”
Heard, who married “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise star Depp, 52, in February 2015, filed for divorce May 23, alleging among other claims that Depp had hit her in the face with his iPhone two days earlier.
She was granted a temporary restraining order Friday, after submitting a complaint that claimed, “During the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me.” In a memorandum to the court, Depp stated Heard “is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.”
Heard’s attorneys said that on the night of the alleged iPhone incident, “Amber acted no differently than many victims of domestic violence, who think first of the harm that might come to the abuser, rather than the abuse they have already suffered. . . . From the beginning it has been Amber’s desire to keep this matter as private as possible, even though LAPD officers responded to a 911 call made by a third party.”
On Monday, a different attorney for Heard denied claims by comedian Doug Stanhope in a column on TheWrap.com, which alleged that Heard was blackmailing Depp by “threatening to lie about him publicly in any and every possible duplicitous way if he didn’t agree to her terms.” Lawyer Peter Sample said those “allegations against Ms. Heard are absolutely and unequivocally false.”
