Amber Hurd’s former personal assistant said she had never seen the actress physically abused by then-husband Johnny Depp – but she said Hurd once spat in her face when he asked for a higher salary.
Hurd went on a rampage of blind rage, sending unrelated text messages at 4 a.m. and was often drunk and addicted to illicit drugs, Kate James testified in a video released in court Thursday during Depp’s defamation trial against Hurd. .
Depp, on the other hand, was very calm, almost shy, “like a complete southern gentleman,” James said.
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor accused Hurd of indirectly slandering him in a 2018 article she wrote for the Washington Post. Hurd describes himself in the article as “a public figure representing domestic violence.”
The play does not say Depp’s name. But his lawyers say this clearly applies to a restraining order that Hurd requested in May 2016, as soon as Depp told her he wanted a divorce.
Depp denies abusing Hurd, but Hurd’s lawyers say the evidence will prove he did.
They claim that the actor’s denials are not credible because he often drinks and uses drugs to the point of obscuration and fails to remember what he did.
Depp is sitting in the courtroom after a break on Thursday. He denies abusing Hurd, but her lawyers say the evidence will prove he did. (Sean Tew / Pool Photo / Associated Press)
James’ video testimony offers a reverse view: Depp was peaceful, she said, while Hurd was often intoxicated and verbally abusive, including to his own mother and sister.
“Her poor sister was treated like a dog that kicks you, in general,” James said.
Hurd was “very dramatic”: a former assistant
James, who worked for Hurd from 2012 to 2015, said she was paid “very poorly”. She said she was hired on an initial salary of $ 25 an hour and that her duties ranged from dry cleaning at Hurd to talking to the actress’ Hollywood agents.
James said she was also tasked with taking two copies of each magazine that included Hurd and storing them in the garage to keep Depp from seeing them. Hurd fell into a “blind rage” when James failed to put the magazines in the garage, James said.
Regarding Hurd and Depp’s time together, James said Hurd was a “very dramatic man” who was deeply insecure about the relationship. Hurd often called James to cry and complain about Depp, she said.
“I remember calling me once when she was alone in New York, crying and walking the streets,” James said. She said she told Hurd to go inside: “I was worried that the paparazzi might be filming her.”
The questions surround the text message
Part of the testimony focused on a text message Depp sent to James after he and Hurd separated. Depp’s text read: “Come for a place in purple and we’ll fix her loose ass nice and well.”
A lawyer asked if “purple spot” meant wine and if “her” meant Hurd. James said he did not want to speculate.
“That’s the way he writes,” James told Depp. “It’s very random and you don’t question it … He writes in a very abstract way.”
Both Depp and Hurd are expected to testify at the six-week Fairfax County Court in Virginia, along with actors Paul Bethany and James Franco and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk.
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