Laurel Avis Anderson’s testimony was played to jurors on the third day of a $ 50 million defamation lawsuit pending in Fairfax, Va. Depp sued Heard for publishing an article in 2018 in which he referred to the allegations of domestic violence that he made for the first time in the context of their divorce in 2016. Anderson submitted a video submission in February and the video was played for the jury on Thursday morning. Anderson said she saw the couple several times from October to December 2015 and that the sessions could be stormy – with the two threatening to leave at times. Anderson said Herd reported that Depp was violent towards her. He also said that both sides could start quarrels, as Herd was afraid of being abandoned by Depp. He also said that Depp has not been violent with other partners in the past 20-30 years. “I thought he was well controlled,” Anderson said. “With Ms. Herd, she was shot. “They participated in what I saw as mutual abuse.” He also testified that Depp denied that he was violent. Anderson said Herd could also be fired when she felt disrespectful and sometimes hit him first. In counseling sessions, Herd often interrupted while Depp tended to be more cautious, he said. “Madam. Herd spoke in a jackhare style. She was very excited,” he said. “She had trouble speaking at a similar pace.” Anderson also testified that the couple did not communicate and had “tremendous skills”. He said that Herd stated in a telephone conversation on December 15, 2015, that she did not want to get a divorce, but that “she wanted to want” to get a divorce. “She loved him. “He loved her,” Anderson testified. “She thought she was not stupid. “He knew what they were doing was not healthy.” At the same meeting, he said that Herd talked about a strategy for getting out of the relationship. Her therapeutic notes state: “Will she have an advantage if she leaves him, but first reports to the police for abuse?” Anderson said that on December 17, 2015, Herd came to her office and showed her bruises under her eyes. Anderson recalled a conversation with Depp in June 2016, in which Depp looked back on the relationship after it ended. Depp said the relationship was “chaotic” and “violent” and that Herd “gave as much as he did”. “I agreed,” Anderson said. “She started arguing. He started the violence. He responded to the challenge if he started first. In my opinion, this had been established throughout the relationship – that he fought as hard as he did. “And he tried to de-escalate a lot more than I think he did.” Herd has claimed that Depp punched her, kicked her, kicked her in the head, grabbed pieces of her hair and, in one case, sexually assaulted her with a bottle of alcohol. Depp denied the allegations and accused her of attacking him. Herd sued Depp for $ 100 million, claiming that his lawyer had defamed her when he claimed he had orchestrated a “prank”. The trial is expected to last six weeks and both Depp and Herd are expected to testify. The jury has heard five witnesses so far, including Depp’s sister Christie Debrovsky and Herd’s former assistant Kate James, both of whom have stated that they have not witnessed violence between the couple. Two of the witnesses – James and Depp’s friend Isaac Baruch – had already testified in the 2020 defamation trial in the UK In that case, a judge dismissed Depp’s allegations of defamation against The Sun’s publisher, who had described Depp as a “husband hitter”, concluding that Herd’s allegations were “essentially true”.
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